Baking for the Firemen: Mini Pies by Christy Beaver and Morgan Greenseth #Review and #Recipe
As you well know by now I send in treats to the firemen for their training meetings. I need to send in sweets that can be eaten by hand to make things easy. This meant that I could never send in pie. I love to bake pie and when I have fruit it’s one of my favorite things to bake.
Bummer, right?
But now thanks to Mini Pies by Christy Beaver and Morgan Greenseth I have now sent pie into the firemen. It was so darn easy too! The book is a delight; full of recipes for small, handheld pies ingeniously made in muffin cups. Brilliant! And so easy to adapt to those recipes that have been handed down for generations.
There are even instructions for making pie in a mason jar. How cute is that?
My neighbor graced me with some rhubarb. Not that I had the least clue with what to do with said rhubarb….but I figured it out. I decided to make cherry rhubarb and peach rhubarb pies for the men.
Are you ready?
This is the Perfect Pie Crust Recipe from the book – erm, I sort of went my own way a bit. I’m a rebel in the kitchen. A rebel! I’ll indicate my changes in red.
8 TBS butter (1 stick)
6 TBS shortening
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used White Whole Wheat)
2 tsp salt
4 tsp sugar
6 – 8 TBS ice water (I used half ice water, half apple cider vinegar)
Chop the butter and shortening into 1/4 inch pieces. Place in the freezer to chill while you prepare the other ingredients.
Blend the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Add the chilled shortening and process until the mixture climbs the walls of the processor bowl. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and process thoroughly.
Add the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together in a ball and makes 2 laps around the processor bowl.
Remove the dough, divide it in half, and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and shill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
OK – I’ll admit it. I’m an old fashioned girl when it comes to pie crust….I don’t use a food processor.
I use a bowl and a pastry blender then a fork to blend.
What can I say. I’m old.
Then I knead it just a bit.
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Divide and wrap for the ‘fridge. After it rests for about half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°
Roll it out and then cut 4″ rounds. I didn’t have a 4″ cookie cutter but found that my husband’s coffee mug did the job just fine!
The rounds go into your muffin tin. Erm, my muffin tin is well used.
I made the two different fillings:
I used fruits I had put up in the freezer last summer
1 1/2 cups bing cherries
1 cup peeled chopped rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
dash of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chopped peaches
1 cup peeled chopped rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
bit of grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
You put about a tablespoon and a half into each mini pie.
And cover with a cutout piece of pie crust. I used stars on the cherry and flowers on the peach.
I sprinkled the tops with sugar in the raw.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 25 minutes until the pies are lightly browned.
I ah-hem, tried one of each and they were very tasty!
I love the mini pie concept and the cookbook is full of great ideas and recipes. There are easy to follow directions and lots of photos. There will be more fun to come, that is for sure!
The firemen were happy – not a pie remained!
You can purchase Mini Pies at Amazon.com
Disclosure: I received Mini Pies from Ulysses Press gratis. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.
