Pumpkin Baklawa Cups

In honor of National Baklava day (*ahem* I think they mean Baklawa Day!), we are posting a Pumpkin Baklawa Cup recipe. What is a Thanksgiving series without a little dessert? These Pumpkin Baklawa Cups are a nice Middle Eastern twist to your classic pumpkin pie dessert. As a bonus, they are individual pieces. They’re perfect to accommodate a socially-distanced Thanksgiving!
If you are interested in the whole pie, check out our gluten-free vegan pumpkin pie recipe we posted last fall! Still in the mood for pumpkin, but maybe not pie? Try our pumpkin scones! They are super yummy and we have a vegan option as well!
Pumpkin Pie Baklawa
Ingredients
- 1 1 lb packages of phyllo dough*, sheets size 18"x14" (each box typically has 18 sheets)
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
Pumpkin Filling
- 2 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pistachio Topping
- 2/3 cup shelled pistachio
- 1 1/2 tsp whole cardamom seeds
- honey
Instructions
- Follow instructions on phyllo dough pack and make sure it is ready for use
- Heat oven to 375 F
- Melt butter
Build Baklawa Cups
- Use a cupcake tin and prep by coating with about a tablespoon of melted butter
- Cut phyllo sheets into 5" x 5" squares (if end of sheet does not come to exactly 5×5, that's ok, you can still use this to build your baklawa cups)
- Add two layers of phyllo dough to each cup. Brush butter all over second layer of phyllo dough. Grab another 2 sheets of phyllo dough and butter the entire second layer. Repeat this process for a total of 9 times, so there should be about 18 layers of phyllo dough for each cup
- Add all pumpkin filling ingredients to a blender and blend until combined
- Add pumpkin filling to each prepped (raw) phyllo cup. Fill the cups leaving only a little room at the top of each
- Bake for about 40 minutes until phyllo dough browns
- Using a spice grinder, grind cardamom seeds
- Pulse pistachio and cardamom in a food processor until pistachio is thickly chopped
- Top each baked pumpkin pie cup with pistachio cardamom mixture
- Coat the top of each cup with honey