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"Yesterday the kids and I did some experimenting in the kitchen, making three different desserts out of a pumpkin pie filling and crust recipe. This tart was by far my husband&amp;#039;s favorite dessert because of its much higher ratio of crust to filling. We also made some little pumpkin-filled pie-cookies, a technique my kindergartener learned at school. Finally, after using up most of the pie crust we still had a lot of filling left over, so I tried something I always wondered about: I baked the filling without any crust, in a water bath.   For the filling and crust recipes, from Joy of Baking, and my variations, see below.  Since the dough has to rest for 30 minutes, I made the crust dough first. I don&amp;#039;t have a food processor so I did it the old-fashioned way. First I mixed 1 1/4 cup flour with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. I cut up 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold butter, then mixed it into the flour mixture.   I used a fork to break up the butter and coat the little pieces with flour, the technique my pie-baker mother-in-law uses. Then I drizzled in cold water until the dough would hold together, almost 1/4 cup for me but it can be as little as 1/8 cup. (This is the most annoying part of making pie dough, where you do kind of have to rely on feel. I always made mine too dry; it has to hold together at this point without being crumbly. Add more water, a bit at a time, if bits are crumbling off.)  I made a disk and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile I made the filling:   1 can of pumpkin, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup each brown sugar and heavy whipping cream, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon salt. I used this filling for all three desserts.   First we made these little cookies, 1 for each of us. We each pulled off a piece of dough, rolled it into a ball and pressed a hole in it with our thumbs. My thumb was way too big and my cookie crumbled, but my son&amp;#039;s 5-year-old thumb was perfect. Put about a teaspoon of filling in the center, then baked at 375F for 20 minutes.   While those baked, I rolled out the rest of the dough and lined mini tart shells with the dough. (Tricks for rolling out crust: start with a disk, flour your work surface and the top of the dough, roll 2 times in the middle of the dough, give it a quarter turn, repeat until it&amp;#039;s as big and thin as you want it.) I baked these at 375F for 25 minutes, until the center was no longer jiggly.   Look how much filling I had left! I poured it into a medium oval casserole and placed that in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. I filled the dish with hot water to halfway up the sides of the oval casserole, then baked at a lower temperature, 325F, for almost an hour, until it was set in the center.   We ate that in small dishes with maple whipped cream, which was simply the remaining heavy cream whipped with a big glug (about 2 tablespoons) maple syrup. I was good, but I did miss having a contrasting texture. You could add some crumbled gingersnaps and this would be great.  More Thanksgiving desserts:  10 Fantastic Fall Fruit Desserts \u2014 Kim Walker "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/a48430/friday-bake-off-pumpkin-desserts-1358/>