Beverly's Thoughts

 

Mini Pies. Yes, you read correctly. Mini. Pies. Minimal work, with lots of novelty, makes these special treats fun to make and give. I made some mini blueberry pies the other day, just to try them out, and now they are definitely on my list of treats to bake for Christmas.

 

If you have a muffin pan, you can make them. All you need is your favorite recipe for pie dough, some sugar, and a pie filling of your choice. Just add a little sugar (or don’t) to your dough recipe, and line the muffin cups with a thin layer of dough. Add the filling. Have fun making lattice tops or maybe using little cookie cutters to make shapes in a top. I baked them at 350 and kept an eye on them for around 15-20 minutes.

I used my silicon muffin pan, which you don’t have to grease, so that it would be easier to get the pies out without breaking them. Also, it would be hard to smooth the dough onto the muffin pan if it were oily. Though I have not tried any other way, I found that removing the pies from the silicon pan was ridiculously easy.

One thing I do not have, though, is a good pie dough recipe. Does anyone have a favorite pie dough recipe that they’ll share?

When you’ve let them cool a bit and you’ve removed them from the pan, put one on a plate and microwave it for about 25 seconds. On my microwave this seems to be the perfect time for it to warm up and crack a bit, so the sweet goodness inside escapes a little. You might need some milk for this.

The thing that makes this recipe a winner in my mind is that the payoff is high for the amount of work you put into it. Sure, you can get fancy with lattice designs and what have you, but when it comes right down to it, this recipe is not only as easy as pie, it is.