Mini Pies!

Pies are, undoubtedly, some of the greatest things known to mankind. But they're unwieldy to slice and they take so long in an oven and whoever consumes them might be like, "Ho hum, what's so special about a pie?"

Not with mini-pies. If you have all the stuff and know-how to make a pie and some muffin tins, you can whip up something way more impressive. And they'll only take 15 minutes to bake!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Or 375 if you're at a higher altitude or something like that.

Crust:

1 c. cold butter (2 sticks)

        or one cup butter substitute for the vegan

1 cup flour

1 pinch salt

A splash of ice-cold water

Combine the flour and salt. Fancy-pants people use food processors for this kind of thing, but I think it adds character and simplicity to dive in with you (washed) hands! Cut the butter up into chunks first if it suits you, and then use your hands to combine the butter with the dry ingredients until a crumble forms. You don't want there to be huge chunks of butter, but you don't want the mixture to resemble sand, either. Once a middle ground between these two catastrophic extremes is achieved, add a splash of ice cold water - just enough to form a dough ball.

Flour a surface and roll the crust out until it's a centimeter thick. Now, take a big circle cut-out (unless you work at a bakery that specialized in gigantic cut-out cookies, you'll probably have to use a bowl for this. Alternatively: use your protractor from math class.)




Line your muffin tins with individual pieces of parchment paper. The paper mustn't cover the entire surface of the muffin-mold, but it must protrude out of the mold enough so that you can grab on and pull 'em out after baking.

Take your circles of dough and press them into the mold. You can go rustic style and let the dough fold in the mold as it may, or you can press the dough upwards from the mold until you have an edge enough to press it into a pattern. My favorite technique for this is to take your thumb and index finger on the outer edge of the dough and press your other index finger between, making a triangular pattern around the circumference.

Set aside.

Filling:

Fruit! Any fruit! The fruit will change the amount required of course, but here are a few examples:

6-7 Apples, sliced (Cortland, Granny Smith, and Macintosh are the best)

3/4 c. Sugar

1 tbs. Cinnamon

3 tbs. Flour

1 tsp. Nutmeg (If you're gross. Personally, I forego the nutmeg.)

or 

1 pint. Raspberries

3-4 Peaches, sliced.

3/4 c. Sugar

or

3 pints of ANY berry

3/4 c. Sugar

dash of Lemon Juice

etc. etc. The possibilities are endless! Get creative - I've done this with plums, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches, or just strawberries, or just apples. What's so great about a pie is the dynamism!

Combine your combination of fruit, sugar, and miscellaneous fixings (cinnamon, lemon juice, flour). I wrote 3/4 cup sugar in the directions because it's a recipe and you have to do that sort of thing, but in practice I do this to taste. Pop a berry/apple slice/spoonful of compote into your mouth - does it taste good? You're done! Is it lackluster? Add some more sugar like a real pastry chef.

Divide your compote into equal parts and lay it in your muffin-tin crusts.

Top Crust:

1/2 C. Butter (or 1 stick)

1/2 C. Flour

1/2 C. Sugar

I prefer a crumb crust because it's delicious and it melts in your mouth, but if you're a fan of bland, you can repeat the bottom-crust recipe and lay circle cut-outs of the crust on top of the bottom-half and pinch the two crusts together.

Combine the flour and sugar and use the same down-and-dirty hand crumbling method from the top crust. Divide your crumble equally between pies and sprinkle it on top.

Now these puppies are ready for the oven. Slide 'em into your preheated oven and wait 15 minutes. They take less time because they're miniature. As part of my wild-abandon style of cooking, I never time my stuff, but if I didn't give you a prescribed time it wouldn't be a recipe and you'd be like "What the heck, Kelsey? I'm totally lost right now." That being said, the smarter way to gauge the done-ness of a pie is to see whether or not the fruit compote has come to a boil. Once you get that nice bubbling action, your pies are definitely at peak tastiness. If they start to brown before this happens, through some tin foil over your pan.




Now you have mini pies, great for hand-held, pie consumption on the go! Or, you know, to save you from the embarrassment of serving a slice of pie that really turns into a big ol' mess as you bring it from pan to plate. And all your friends are impressed with you because you took something big and made it little. You're welcome!