Let’s face it. Some of us prefer fruit, and some of us prefer vegetables. My family falls squarely into the vegetable department, which always leaves me at a loss for what to do with all that readily available fruit sitting in a bowl on my counter. Sure, the husband takes a piece or two to work with him every day. Occasionally there will be something that I just can’t stop eating (this week it was the red grapes – which is odd considering there are two uneaten packages of red grapes still in the fridge from previous contributions).
But in general, fruit gets uneaten. So. I need to find a way to use it, and my current way is pie. Mini pies get eaten quicker in my house than a whole pie does (don’t ask why – I’m clueless!), which is why I have that set of mini pie pans. (As a note – if it’s a savory pot pie, no one seems to have a problem eating pieces of the whole). So, I’m now on a pie kick. Last week I made peach pie. This week, apple (except one of those lovelies above is actually apple-blueberry because I didn’t have quite enough apple filling to fill up the whole pie shell – can you guess which one?). This week will also probably be mango-blueberry as well. I haven’t yet decided.
The crust I used is my tried and true, but I will also share a coconut oil crust recipe too, just in case you’re vegan. I haven’t quite mastered the coconut oil crust – it tastes good… but it isn’t as pretty.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose wheat flour (I use a white wheat flour)
- 8 oz frozen, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 to 8 ounces ice water
Instructions
- Food processor is my preferred method, so those instructions are first. 🙂
- Place flour, salt, and butter into food processor. Pulse into mixture resembles coarse meal or peas.
- Add ice water a little at a time, until mixture starts clumping together.
- If you don't have a food processor, use a pastry cutter or fork to mix together flour, salt, and butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Add ice water a spoonful at a time until the mixture starts to clump together.
- Separate into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least one hour.
- To use: remove one disk at a time from refrigerator and roll out on a floured surface. I separated my crusts into 6 balls and rolled out for my mini pie pans.
- Add filling to pie.
- Roll out remaining disk (again, I did 6 pieces from each disk) and place over top of pie(s). Flute edges (or crimp with a fork, as I did).
Just in case you’re looking, Baking Bites has an excellent coconut oil pie crust recipe. Apparently you just need to let it warm up way more than I did. I will try again, soon. 🙂
Ingredients
- 6 cups chopped fruit (this can be apples, berries, pears, mangoes, mixed - whatever!)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- (or alternatively - substitute 1/3 cup of honey)
- 1 tbsp flour
- zest from one orange
- juice from one orange
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Mix fruit together with sugar and flour.
- Add orange zest and juice.
- Fill mini pie crust shells and top with pie crust.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until pie shells are golden and cooked through.
- Cool completely before serving.
Thanks for posting this. What a great idea…on boy I wonder if pampered chef sells mini pie pans…. 🙂
Thanks for uploading!! Fruit is the thing we really go for in our baskets so we usually go through it fast!!