Pies and Mini Pies
You’ll soon be baking pies with confidence with these 100 great pie and mini pie recipes. From homey fruit pies, custard and cream pies to pies with unusual ingredients, there are pies for every occasion. You’ll find chapters for tarts and toppings, crusts and refrigerated pies. You will also find great hints and tips for preparing a perfect pie that even your grandmother would be proud to serve.
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a beginning baker, you’ll find recipes your family will be asking for again and again. You’ll also learn how to create mini pies from your standard pie recipes. Mini pies are a great way to serve a crowd and are perfect gifts for the holidays.
Mini Pies
Bite size mini pies are all the rage. The teeny tiny pies are so easy to eat and portion control is built in. These little baked goods are so cute displayed in cupcake racks or put together into a shape like a Christmas tree for holiday parties. They make perfect party hors-d'oeuvres since they are finger food. And they are fun to make and can be made in advance of your get together.
In this recipe book, you’ll learn how to make two sizes of mini pies from regular pie recipes. One mini pie is made using a regular muffin/cupcake tin (2 3/4”). The second itty bitty pie is made using a mini muffin pan which will make 1 3/4” mini pies.
Not every recipe in this book has a mini pie variation but the ones that lend themselves nicely to the mini pie variation do have a mini pie recipe. If you would like to try a mini pie and there is no mini pie recipe for that particular recipe, just find a similar one that does have the mini pie recipe and adjust it. Most the recipes do have a mini pie version.
REMOVING THE PIES - Be sure your mini pie pans are non-stick for ease of removal. Otherwise the fragile tiny pie may break into pieces. Let the mini pie cool in the pan before attempting to remove it. Spraying the muffin cup with Pam first also helps in removal.
Another tip is to cut strips of parchment paper to use as handles for removing the pies. Lay a strip of parchment paper down in each mini muffin cup or muffin cup with about an inch sticking above the muffin cup on each end. Then add the pie crust. Mini pies will lift right out with their handles when they are finished baking.
BAKING TEMPERATURE AND TIME – Using small mini muffin pans or regular muffin pans will cause your pies to cook a bit quicker than a large pie. I recommend you turn the oven temperature to 350 or 375 degrees F, cook the pies for 15 to 20 minutes and if they need more time, check them every 5 minutes so they don’t overcook.
If the mini pie has a top crust and it is browning too quickly, just like with a regular size pie, you can use tin foil around the edges of the mini or just cover the whole pan lightly with tin foil.
AMOUNT OF FILLING – If you fill the muffin cups too full of a juicy filling, like blueberry pie filling, the filling may rise and kind of explode onto your pan, especially if you have a top crust on it. The juicy filling will actually lift up the top crust so it can ooze out the sides. So I recommend testing a few and try filling the muffin cups 2/3’s or 3/4’s full of pie filling.
PIE CRUST – It’s easy to use a pie crust recipe or refrigerated pre-made pie crusts for the mini pies. Just use a cup or bowl that is 3” to 4” in circumference, depending on your mini muffin pan, cut circles from the dough and press them into the muffin cup.
For the tiny mini muffin pans, it works great to make a pie crust recipe, then roll the pastry into balls and press the balls into the bottom and up sides of muffin cups. The flour based recipes make a better mini pie crust, just because the crust can be made thinner than is possible with the graham cracker crusts. The pastry recipe for the Mississippi Mud Pie would be a nice substitute for a graham cracker crust.
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