Strawberry Mini Pies

The other day, my mom and I made mini strawberry pies for a friend of mine. They were adorable and delicious, so I decided to make a crap-ton (scientific quantification) more to give to other folk, too. The recipe is from the Food Network, and you can find it here. The cool part is that the original recipe is made with honey, not sugar, and yet it is still yummy! This time around, though, I did give it a pinch of sugar, just to give it that extra tart that I love so much. Both are good, though. The original recipe makes 12 mini pies in a mini muffin pan, but I doubled it because we only have a 24 count mini muffin pan. Adapt or die! And also get more mini pies. I'm not much of a cook, but I do make a mean pie. Probably because pies are mad easy to make.

First I chopped up a bunch of strawberries, and only ate one or two in between. The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of quarter inch sized pieces. Pay attention to that, 'cause those muffin tins are tiny.

I also had to grate some orange peel, which I then added corn starch to (instead of the arrowroot in the recipe - both work as thickeners) and honey, as well as lemon juice. And then I whisked it all together, and folded the strawberries in with a spoon. This all sat for a while until I was finished cutting up all the mini pie circles in the crust, but that's good, as it makes it taste yummier.

In order to get the pies out of the tin without ruining them, you put little strips of parchment paper under the crusts. It's really not scientific, cutting them. Just make sure they're long enough to use to lift up the pies in the end.

Then I had to cut 48 little circles in the crusts, 24 for the bottoms and 24 that were a little smaller for the tops. This took... forever. I mean, just completely ignore the 15 minute prep time thing, 'cause it's a lie. Even when I only made a dozen the first time and there were two of us, it took longer than 15 minutes. Expect to be cutting and grating and making circles for much longer.

Putting it all together: parchment paper strips, bottom circles pressed in, spoonfuls of strawberries, and then the little top circle crusts. I brushed egg along the rims so that they'd stick together, and then crimped the edges with a fork. Then I brushed the tops lightly with egg, and made little vents in the top. (You know, so it wouldn't end up looking like the fourth picture, with everything spilling out everywhere after they cooked. Oh well. I said I made a mean pie, not a tidy looking one. Messy still equals yummy, promise.) Then they went into the oven for a little over 15 minutes, and came out messy but smelling oh so good.

And came out adorable like this! Some are going to my mom's work tomorrow, some to my work, and the rest into my tummy. Pie is my super duper favorite.