Pumpkin & Apple Butter Pie with Maple Cookie Crust

If asked to name my favorite kind of pie, it would be a toss-up between apple and pumpkin. Two classic fall favorites, I have a tough time choosing one over the other. Given this predicament, I decided to combine flavors of both into one flavorful and aromatic pie.

My hope was that, with the addition of a crust comprised of crushed maple sandwich cookies, this pie would be good enough to put smiles on apple and pumpkin lovers alike.  I must admit that I was a tad disappointed with certain aspects of the pie; namely, I could barely discern any apple flavor and the cookie crust turned a bit mushy.  Regardless, the positive qualities outweigh the negative. The cookie crust is a sweet canvas for the autumn-spiced filling. The combination of apple and pumpkin butters with pumpkin puree yields a velvety smooth filling that would also be delicious sans crust.

This recipe needs a little tweaking, but I wanted to share my “rough draft” with you.  I would recommend nixing the cookie crust, and either baking the filling alone or pouring it into a traditional pie crust.  I’m not giving up on the idea of using sandwich cookies as a pie crust… any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Pumpkin & Apple Butter Pie with Maple Cookie Crust

Pie filling loosely adapted from this recipe

Filling Ingredients:

1/2 cup apple butter
1/2 cup pumpkin butter
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp maple syrup (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup evaporated skim milk

Crust Ingredients:

10 maple sandwich cookies (I used Trader Joe’s Maple Leaf Cookies… if you can’t find these, vanilla sandwich cookies will suffice)
3 Tbsp melted butter or margarine, melted
2 Tbsp pumpkin butter

Direction:

Preheat oven to 425 F.
Pulse the cookies in a food processor until finely ground. Remove to a medium bowl. To the cookie crumbs, add the melted butter and pumpkin butter. Mix with a fork until the ingredients are fully combined. Spoon the crust mixture into a pie pan, and smooth evenly using a rubber spatula (the mixture may be a bit sticky, but with a little patience, it will spread). Bake the crust for 8 minutes, and let cool.
In a large bowl, combine the first 7 filling ingredients (through the pumpkin pie spice). Stir in the lightly beaten eggs and evaporated skim milk. Pour mixture over the cooled crust and bake the pie for 40 minutes, or until set. Let cool before cutting and serving.