I thought I should prove the handheld pie concept to myself. Actually, all I really wanted to do was use up the leftover pie dough sitting in the refrigerator and testing a couple of ideas for the handheld pies was a good excuse. I needed to work some things out before I began testing in earnest. Prepping the apples wasn't a problem; I just cut them smaller than I do for a larger pie. The rest of the filling prep was exactly the same.
I didn't have anything that would cut the right shape. Hostess fruit pies aren't true half-moons; they're more like rectangles with rounded corners.
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| That's no half-moon! That's a fruit pie! |
It looks like I'll have to give my friends at
Copper Gifts another custom cutter challenge. Until then, though, I'll decided to use the ice cream sandwich cutter as a stand-in. It worked like a charm.
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Just add filling!
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For this go round, I just cut sides, plopped filling on one, then married the them together. I used buttermilk to help the edges seal. I know a lot of folks use egg whites or cream. I just like taste buttermilk adds to crusts. Also, this was the first time I'd ever used a crimper for the edges. I wasn't sure how it would work but I have to say I'm a firm believer in this little device!
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| Crimped and ready for oven action! |
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| Pie life with cutter and crimper. |
When it was all said and done, I retrieved four lovely little pies from the oven!
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| Pies as finger food. |
They were quite tasty and fit our hands just right! The crust, even after the dough sat in the fridge for a couple of weeks, was still tender. That didn't surprise me so much because the recipe I use seems to have an excellent shelf life. I can't believe I'm about to start test two other recipes for this project but I'm curious about some other ingredients. I'll talk about those next time.
Currently listening to:
Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out
