Maple Butter Pumpkin Pie

This creamy pie is sweetened with pure maple syrup and crowned with maple whipped cream for an extra burst of Thanksgiving-perfect flavor.

Ingredients

Pie:

• 1 pkg. (11 oz.) pie crust mix
• 1 ½ cups pure maple syrup
• ¾ cup canned pumpkin 
• 6 Tbs. butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp. maple extract
• ¼ tsp. salt

Whipped cream:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

To make pie:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 9″ pie pan with cooking spray. Prepare pie crust according to package directions for 2 crusts; reserve ⅓ of dough. On lightly floured surface, roll out remaining dough into 12″ round. Fit in pie pan; flute edge. Refrigerate. Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Roll out reserved dough to ⅛” thickness. Using 3″ and 1 ¾” maple-leaf-shaped cutters, cut out shapes. 
• For leaf veins, using small knife, score lines on each leaf cutout; transfer to ungreased baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 7-8 minutes. Remove to rack.
• Place rimmed baking sheet on rack in center of oven. In large bowl, whisk together syrup, pumpkin, butter, eggs, flour, sugar, lemon juice, pumpkin pie spice, maple extract and salt. Transfer to pie shell. Bake on hot baking sheet 55 minutes or until set in center. Cool on rack. 

To make whipped cream:

• Just before serving, on medium-high speed, beat cream, syrup and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Transfer to pastry bag fitted with star tip; pipe along edge of pie. Garnish with pastry leaves.