Mini Strawberry Streusel Pies

A good dose of ginger in the streusel topping and a bit of heavy cream in the strawberry filling makes these extra special.

Cooking and cooling the strawberry filling before making the pies also makes them easy to assemble.

One recipe makes about 20 of these babies so there are plenty for you and plenty for you to share. Your friends will be very happy.

Here's the recipe:

Mini Strawberry Streusel Pies
(makes 18 to 20)

Strawberry Filling:
2 lbs. frozen or fresh strawberries, sliced
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of sea salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup heavy cream

Make this ahead of time and cool it completely before assembling the pies. In a saucepan, heat the strawberries, sugar, vanilla and sea salt until the mixture comes to a boil and the berries start to break apart. Keep an eye on it and keep stirring. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in the heavy cream and add it to the mixture, stirring constantly until the mixture comes back to a boil and thickens. Remove the filling from the heat and let it cool completely.

Crust:
3 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup cold water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Divide dough in half and roll out each half into a rectangle on a floured surface. Use a cutter to cut 4-inch rounds and place each one in a muffin tin, pressing the dough into the bottom and evenly up the sides so that 2/3 of the tin is lined. Don't bring the dough all the way up the sides of the tin or you will end up with a muffin-shaped pie.  Gather up the excess dough and repeat until all the dough is used. Chill the crusts in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes before adding the strawberry filling and streusel topping. Any extra strawberry filling is great on toast or ice cream!
  
Streusel Topping
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, using your fingers to break apart the butter. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.

To Assemble And Bake:
Fill the mini pie crusts with the strawberry filling and top each with a sprinkle of the streusel topping.

The pies before adding the streusel topping.

Bake them in a 375-degree oven for about 12 minutes or until the crust and topping are golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let the pies cool for just a bit before lifting them out of the muffin tins and transferring them to a cooling rack. If you let them cool too long in the tins, they will be hard to remove.

The pies after baking. Remove them from the tins before they cool too much or they will stick and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies

A pie being enjoyed by my nephew Sam who is my official taste tester. He gave it thumbs up!

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies are delicious and so easy to serve because no utensils are needed. Guests can just pick a pie up and dive right in! These decadent pies were part of an assortment of 150 pies that I recently made for a wedding reception.

To make them, I used my favorite pie crust and chocolate cream pie recipes and pre-baked the crusts in muffin tins. I didn't have to grease or line the muffin tins for the crusts to easily lift out after baking. The only real trick is to not line the entire depth of the muffin tin with pie dough, you only want to line it two-thirds of the way up because you want pie-shaped pies, not muffin-shaped pies.

After baking, lift the crusts out, fill them with chocolate cream filling and let them cool for a bit before placing them in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours.

Before serving, I garnished each pie with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of shaved dark chocolate.

Here's the recipe:

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies
(makes 18 to 20)

Crust:
3 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Divide dough in half and roll out each half into a rectangle on a floured surface. Use a cutter to cut 4-inch rounds and place each one in a muffin tin,  pressing the dough into the bottom and evenly up the sides so that 2/3 of the tin is lined. Gather up the excess dough and repeat until all the dough is used. Chill the crusts in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes then bake in a 375-degree oven for about 12 minutes or until the crusts are baked thoroughly and golden brown.

The baked crusts.

Filling:

1 2/3 cups water

3 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 (14 ounce) can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
 

Directions:

In a medium-sized saucepan, use a whisk to mix the water and cornstarch and cocoa until smooth. Stir in Eagle Brand milk and the three egg yolks. 

 

Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until it becomes thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

 

Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes before filling the baked pie shells. My favorite tool for this task is a 1-inch cookie scoop. 

 

Let the mini pies cool at room temperature for 15 minutes before transferring to the refrigerator. Let the pies chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

A dollop of whipped cream adds a nice touch to the chilled pies.

And, a sprinkle of shaved dark chocolate on top of the whipped cream makes them even better!

 

Apple Pie Two Ways

My husband's birthday apple pie.

I had a catering job last Sunday on my husband's birthday. So as a peace offering, I asked him to name his dessert and I'd make it.

After a full week of thinking about it, he chose apple pie.

So here's the recipe for my husband's belated birthday treat, and a variation for making mini Dutch apple pies for a crowd.

I used to make individual hand pies for entertaining, but I find these pies made in cupcake papers much easier.


Happy Birthday Joe!

Mini Dutch apple pies are great for entertaining because they're easy to transport and serve.

Apple Pie Two Ways 
makes one 10-inch apple pie or 12 mini Dutch apple pies


Filling
4 large Golden Delicious Apples
3 large Granny Smith Apples
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup flour

For the filling, I like a mixture of Golden Delicious and Granny Smith Apples

Peel and slice apples. For a single pie make larger slices, for the mini Dutch apple pies, make a smaller dice. Toss apple slices with lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar and flour. Set aside.

The apple filling for a large single pie. For mini Dutch apple pies, cut the apples into smaller pieces.

Crust
3 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Your hands are the best tools for mixing the Crisco into the flour mixture. When it's mixed enough, it should resemble coarse crumbs.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Divide dough in half and roll out on a floured surface for the bottom and top crusts. Or, for mini Dutch pies, use a 4-inch round cutter to cut multiple bottom crusts.

When rolling out the dough, keep moving it on your board to prevent sticking. Also, keep rounding up the edges so that you end up with an even sized circle.

To Assemble
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Single Pie

Fold bottom crust in half and lay in pie plate. Fill with apple filling and cover with top crust. Seal edges around pie and crimp with fingers.

Poke holes to allow steam to escape during baking. Bake for 20 minutes and reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for another 20 to 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

A pie ready for it's top crust.

Ready for the oven.

Mini Dutch Apple Pies

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers. Gently lay 4-inch round pieces of dough into papers. Fill each with about 2 tablespoons of filling. Set in the fridge to chill while making crumb topping.

Crumb Topping
2/3 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup flour

In a bowl, combine oatmeal, cinnamon, flour and sugar. Using fingers, break butter into mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Top each mini pie with crumb topping. Bake at 375 degrees for 16 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

A mini pie ready for it's crumb topping.