Preheat oven to 400°F. Using a small glass with an opening about the same size of the bottom of a cupcake, cut the dough into 24 circles.
Brush both sides of pie crust with milk and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 5 to 6 minutes or until they are just starting to cook. They are being parbaked so they aren’t supposed to bake completely. Place on a cooling rack.
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar on low speed for about a minute until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at time and continue to mix on low. Add in milk, pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
Add the dry ingredients in three parts while mixing on low speed.
Place a pie crust round at the bottom of each cupcake liner. Fill with pumpkin cupcake batter about ¾ full. Bake for 25 to 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes outs clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Pumpkin Spice Buttercream
Beat butter on low speed with a mixer. Slowly increase the speed to medium. Add sugar, one cup at a time, on low speed. Add vanilla extract, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Beat on low until combined.
Increase the speed to medium high and beat for about 3 to 5 minutes, until it’s whipped, fluffy and creamy.
Assembly
Using an apple corer or paring knife, cut a circle out for the pumpkin pie filling in the centre of each cupcake. Be careful to not go too far down or you’ll cut into the pie crust at the bottom. Save the cupcake piece you removed for step 3.
Fill cupcakes with pumpkin pie filling with a small spoon.
Place the small cupcake piece you removed to close the top of the cupcake. You may need to break it in half to fit.
Using an icing bag and tip of choice, frost the cupcakes. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice, if desired.