Summer is all about scrumptious fresh, just-picked flavors! What better place to put all those bright fruit flavors than in a pie... a cute little mini pie!
I have been a pie making machine lately. Me... the non-baker! Me... who LOVES the IDEA of baking... but when it comes to actually making pies... not so much! Me... who took nine years to learn how to make a descent pie crust!
My woeful pie making days are now over! Making these darling little mini pies was easy and so much F-U-N, FUN!...
The Breville Pie Maker (angel chorus singing... halo appears around Pie Maker)
I am not much of a gadget girl, but I have been flirting with the idea of buying a BPM for awhile now. When Wm-Sonoma had a $100.00 off promotion, I picked one up right away! A $49.00 investment was a terrific deal for a non baker to make towards pie making perfection!
Click HERE to visit the great folks at Wm-Sonoma and see the BPM!
I must confess my first attempts making pies with the Breville Pie Maker were NOT a smashing success. The pies came out way too brown... almost burnt on the top.
It took me another 2 tries to get what I would consider a stunning mini pie. I did a good amount of tweaking to the recipe and technique in the instruction book but it was worth the effort!
Now just look at the little darlings I can crank out...
Here are some HELPFUL facts to know when using the Breville Pie Maker...
~ The best pies do not use homemade pie dough Yes, I AM serious... really!! Store bought, ready made pie dough makes the best crust in this machine. Now, this IS my kind of pie making!!!!
~ The best pie tops are made from puffed pastry. Anything tastes better with puffed pastry!!! Sounds even better! The bottom crust is ready made pie dough and the tops are ready made puffed pastry. I sorta felt like I was a pie making cheater! Too easy!
~ The filling needed to be cooked as the pie "bakes" in the machine for a short period of time... too short to cook the filling. I cooked the filling beforehand, using frozen mixed berries, and added fresh berries when I filled the bottom crust. Again, so easy!
~ The instruction book calls for a fruit pie to be baked for 8-12 minutes.... WAY TOO LONG! Like I said, I burnt my first couple of batches of pies. This is what worked best for me... I baked the pies for 5 minutes with the lid down, until the top of the pie was golden brown and then continued to bake them with the lid up for another 3-4 minutes until the bottom crust was done. This seemed to work perfectly!!!
~ The pies were delicious hot, right out of the pie maker. When cooled, they store well in an airtight container for a few days. We keep eating them as fast as I make them, so I don't know how they freeze.
~I have been cutting out circles (the cutters come with the pie maker) of pie crust and puffed pastry and freezing the rounds. That way I have practically no mess when I want to make pies.
~ This is addictive! Now whenever anyone invites me for a meal, I'll volunteer to make pies for dessert!
STONEGABLE ALL-AMERICAN MINI PIES
(makes 4 mini pies)
1 package ready made, preformed pie dough
1 package puffed pastry
flour for dusting
1 1/3 cups mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries and blackberries), thawed
3 TBS sugar
2 TBS flour
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 TBS lemon, freshly squeezed
1/2~ 2/3 cup fresh berries (I used blueberries and raspberries)
extra berries for garnish
mint for garnish
Plug in pie maker...
Combine berries, sugar, 2 TBS flour, lemon zest and lemon juice in a small saucepan and gently stir to mix. Cook over low heat until bubbly, stirring occasionally. Cook about 5 minutes until filling gets slightly thick. Take off heat and reserve.
Flour a work surface. For some odd reason, I really LOVE to do this!
Follow directions below for each image...
1. Take pie dough out of the package and lay dough on the floured surface.
2. Cut out 4 bottom rounds with the bottom pie crust cutter. Put aside.
Put 1 sheet of puffed pastry from the package and lay on the floured sheet. Lightly roll the puffed pastry with a rolling pin to get rid of the creases, but do NOT stretch the pastry. Using the "top" cutter, cut out 4 pie tops. Set aside.
3. Press the pie dough into the bottom of the each pie cup with the "pastry press".
Fill each pie with 1/3 cup of pie filling. Add a small handful of fresh berries to the top of the filling.
Put the puffed pastry tops over the pies.
Close lid and bake for 5 minutes. Open lid and see if the pie tops are golden brown. If not, close the lid and continue to cook, checking every minute.
If the pie tops are done, leave the lid of the pie maker up and let the bottoms continue to cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, until just slightly golden.
Remove pies from pie maker to a wire rack to cool.
The Breville Pie Maker is a fantastic small kitchen appliance!
The sky is the limit when it comes to pie making....
fruit pies... meat pies... veggie pies... fruit tarts... cream pies... nut pies... tartlets... quiche...turnovers...
I am also going to see what happens when I put ready to bake biscuits, rolls, cookies dough and pizza dough in it! How about mini monkey bread, bread pudding or calzones?
