Buttery and flaky crust is wrapped around a sweet and creamy pumpkin filling that hits you with the taste of autumn spice.

I’m going to Universal Orlando later this year and one of my favorite sections is the Harry Potter area. Between Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, and London there are LOADS of food goodies that I grew up reading about. I remember as a kid drooling over the idea of Harry’s feasts in the Great Hall and wishing that I could take a trip to Hogsmeade to buy magical candies from Honeydukes. Now as an adult I know that the in-park carb packed Pumpkin Pastie is going to have me feeling bad while I’m on vacation. This low carb keto pumpkin pastie will allow you to have the feast you want. As of this writing you can even let them know you’re on a special diet and they’ll let you bring this into the park(you should double check their rules if you’re going). So you could head over to the Three Broomsticks, grab one of their more protein-packed meals and have this pastie for dessert!

Recipe Notes

Not going to lie, this recipe is a fair amount of work! If you’ve ever made a wheat flour pie crust you’ll be familiar with how pastry needs to be constantly kept cold. So make sure you have room in your freezer and lots of time. Work quickly to make the pie crust as flaky as possible. While the recipe is long it’s really just to make sure you know how to do everything right. It’s not really a complicated recipe or tricky other than keeping things cold. 

Ingredients

Apple Cider Vinegar — The main thing with this is you want one that is “with the mother”. Bragg Organic Apple Cider vinegar is a popular choice.

Mascarpone cheese — you may be familiar with using cream cheese for fathead dough but this recipe calls specifically for mascarpone cheese because it is less “sour” than cream cheese. In such a delicate sweet pastry the sourness of cream cheese can be overpowering. Still, if for some reason you can’t get mascarpone cheese in your area you could make this recipe with cream cheese. It just won’t taste as good as it will have a slightly sour aftertaste.

Sweetener Options

Monkfruit drops are low carb and easy to use. I chose this sweetener because it’s easier on the stomach than sugar alcohols and when I go to universal I want to be able to eat several without worrying about a stomachache. It also tastes great fresh out of the oven, no need to wait! My brand is 6 drops = 1 teaspoon of cane sugar and that varies by brand so you may need to take that into account.

Swerve Brown which is a keto replacement for brown sugar would probably be another great option. Just sweeten the pumpkin mixture, stir it and taste it to see if it’s as sweet as you like. Keep in mind this is mostly erythritol so I suggest just eating one pastie and seeing how you feel if you’re not used to sugar alcohols, as a lot can upset your stomach. You will also often find with erythritol sweeteners that the dessert tastes better the next day.

Erythritol can also be used but I would recommend sitting this in the fridge overnight before you eat it to reduce the cooling effect of erythritol. Just sweeten the pumpkin mixture, stir it and taste it to see if it’s as sweet as you like. I suggest just eating one pastie and seeing how you feel if you’re not used to sugar alcohol, as a lot can upset your stomach. You will also often find with erythritol sweeteners that the dessert tastes better the next day.

Equipment

Rolling Pin – I really recommend you get a rolling pin with thickness-size rings on the end so you can get a nice evenly rolled pie crust. The rolling pin I use is stainless steel and even came with a silicone brush which is useful for the eggwash.

Parchment Paper- This dough is pretty sticky even with a steel rolling pin, you’ll need parchment paper to roll the dough and to bake the pasties.

Cookie Cutters / 4 inch Mini Tart Pans – You’ll need to cut the dough into shape. I actually just use my mini tart pans since it means I have to have less clutter in the kitchen. It makes them about the right size for a hand pie. (about 4 inches around) In a pinch you could cut the circles with the back of a butter knife but it doesn’t work nearly as well (and will impact the flakiness of the crust negatively because it takes longer)

Cookie Sheet – To bake the pies on. It will also need to fit into your freezer. I prefer a ceramic coating for a healthier nonstick surface than teflon.

Food Processor/Blender – The dough is far easiest to make in a KitchenAid Mixer. If needed you can simply stir the dough together with a fork, but it will take quite a while. 

Freezer space – You’re going to have to roll out the dough and freeze it repeatedly. Make sure you have space in your freezer to do this.

Mixing Bowl – Plastic isn’t great for you and you’ll need to mix the ingredients. I like these metal bowls with lids. They have a nonstick bottom, a handle, and a pouring spout. It’s superior to glass since it’s harder to break, but a glass mixing bowl is great too.

Goes Great With

Hot Chocolate –  Make a keto hot chocolate and add some pumpkin spice or cinnamon for a fall kick. Add some Jordan’s Skinny Syrup Butter Toffee syrup for a butterbeer experience without all the sugar.

Keto Low Carb Pumpkin Pasties (Harry Potter Inspired)

For the Dough

• 1 cup Almond Flour
• 5 tablespoons Coconut Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I like Redmond’s Real Salt )
• 1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 1/2 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
• .5cup(8 tablespoons) butter cold (or diced and frozen if you have an electric mixer like the KitchenAid Mixer)
• 4 tablespoons mascarpone cheese cold
• 1 egg for the dough
• 2 teaspoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 egg for egg wash
• 12 Monkfruit drops (or 2 teaspoons Swerve Brown or 2 teaspoons Erythritol)

For the Filling

This amount of filling is enough for about 2-3 batches of dough depending on how much filling you use. I made the recipe this way because it’s based on a can of pumpkin puree. You can freeze leftover filling til the next time you make pie dough.

• 8oz (226g/16 Tablespoons) Mascarpone Cheese 
• 15oz (425g) Can of pumpkin puree (make sure it’s JUST pumpkin, some cans have sugar) 
• 1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt (I like Redmond’s Real Salt )
• 50 Monkfruit drops (or to taste)

1. If you have a strong electric mixer like the KitchenAid Mixer, then you can dice up your butter and mascarpone cheese and freeze it. If you’re making this recipe by hand with a whisk/fork skip this step or if you want an EXTRA flaky crust freeze your butter and mascarpone cheese then shred it with a cheese grater and put it back into the freezer for step 3. You can skip this step to save on effort, it will still taste great but be less flaky. 
2. Add almond flour, coconut flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and xanthan gum to bowl and mix well. You want everything to be as evenly combined as possible for the dry ingredients. Chunks of xanthan gum in particular will throw off the texture a lot, so sprinkle that over the top of all the other ingredients to help spread it out.
3. Add the butter and mascarpone cheese to the bowl and mix until it’s just barely brought together, it will be crumbly. Try to work quickly to keep the butter as cold as possible. You’re looking for a coarse breadcrumb texture that is the butter and mascarpone cheese coated in the powder. Not a cookie dough texture.
4. Add in 1 egg, 12 monkfruit drops, and apple cider vinegar and mix until the dough just begins to come together–but don’t overmix it into a solid paste. The unevenness of the dough helps with texture and also allows you to work faster so that the butter stays cold.
5. Once done push all the mixture down into the bottom of the bowl. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour. I suggest letting it sit overnight. You can keep it like this for up to 3 days if needed. You can also freeze the pie crust and thaw it out as you need.
6. Put your rolling pin in the freezer so it’s nice and cold for when you’re ready to work with the dough. I recommend using size rings at 3mm. You can also freeze your cookie cutters/whatever you’re using to cut the shapes.
7. You can create the filling while the dough rests in the refrigerator. If making this ahead of baking time I wouldn’t store this in the refrigerator more than a day ahead of time because the pumpkin tends to get an off taste. The filling is simple enough– mix all of the filling ingredients in a bowl. You can use a spoon to get small tastes to test how sweet you would like it to be.
8. Once the dough is rested–Wet your counter with a few drops of water and put down a sheet of parchment paper. The water will keep the parchment paper in place. Take out about 1/3rd of the dough and put it on the parchment paper and return the rest to the fridge. Then put another sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough. 
9. Use the rolling pin to roll the dough out to 3mm, try to get the dough to be evenly the same size.
10. Once you’ve flattened the dough you can pick up the parchment paper with it and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Try to keep it flat or it will get wrinkles and you’ll have to reflatten and refreeze.
11. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. The cookie sheet will need to go into the freezer later so make sure it fits.
12. Work quickly during this next part: Take the dough out of the freezer, remove the top layer of parchment and set it aside, we will reuse it later. Press the cookie cutter/tart tin into the dough to make circles and move it onto the parchment paper on top of the cookie sheet. Sometimes using a spatula can help you move it over but be careful as it can tear the parchment paper. If the dough starts to scrunch when you try to move it over you need to put it back in the freezer again for 10 minutes. Leave at least an inch between the pie crust rounds, but they don’t spread very much.
13. Once you’ve gotten about 6 pie crust rounds onto the cookie sheet (or filled up the cookie sheet), use a tablespoon to take out a small portion of pie filling and put it in the center of the pie crust round. You want it to be about 1/3rd inch thick. You need to leave about 1/2 inch around the edge of the pie crust round empty so that we have room to seal the crust.
14. Repeat step 10, get more dough from the fridge as needed to make the top layer pie crusts. While you’re rolling out any new dough you can put the cookie sheet with crusts on it in the freezer.
15. Place the top pie crust rounds on top of the filling carefully and use your finger to push the edges down to meet the lower pie crust. Just your finger’s heat should be enough to seal it.
16. Once you’ve covered all the filling and pressed the edges together put the cookie sheet with the sealed pies into the freezer for 10 minutes. You may have extra dough left over, you can put this into a ziplock bag and keep it in the freezer or bake it on the side as shapes for extra pie pieces. Try some easy lightning shapes or just make it into sticks and dunk it into the leftover pie filling to use it up.
17. Pull the sealed pies back out of the fridge and use a fork to push the edges down. Push down and keep it down and pull away from the center to keep the texture. If you just push into the dough and then pull upwards often the dough will stick and just ruin the texture. This provides a better seal but also gives a slightly different texture to the dough on the edges that tastes great. 
18. Use a butter knife to cut vents into the middle of the handpies. You can make an easy zigzag for a lightning bolt shape if you’re making them Harry Potter themed.
19. Put the cookie sheet with the pies back into the freezer
20. Create your egg wash by cracking an egg into a bowl and whisking it. Wash a basting brush and put it into the egg wash so it’s ready and you can work quickly. 
21. Pull the pies back out and brush their tops with the egg wash.
22. Put the pies back into the freezer and set a timer for 30 minutes for them to freeze in shape. If you skip this step the pies will be more likely to melt and lose their shape.
23. Once the pies have been in the freezer for 30 minutes keep leaving them there and preheat the oven to 400F. Let the oven come up to temperature completely so that the pies cook more evenly.
24. Place the cookie sheet into the oven for 10 minutes. Take the pan out and rotate it and put it back in for 5 minutes. This is to make sure they are evenly browned. From here you’ll need to check on the pies every 5 minutes until they are golden brown all over. This can take 20-30 minutes for most ovens. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

Things I’d like to try:

• Adding a bit of lemon juice to the dough or filling to further counter the sourness of the mascarpone cheese. ACV to the filling may also work
• Weighing the recipe instead. Measuring cups are adding some variability to the structure of the dough. (sometimes it falls apart). I may also just need to up the coconut flour.
• I noticed one brand of mascapone was thicker than the other. This may play a part in the dough structure so I’ll need to test and see what the differences are. The thicker brand may work better for dough. When I used the softer brand it was softer dough but not sure if I just needed to freeze it more.