Strawberry Mini Pies Summer Recipe
A recipe to use those abundant fresh summer strawberries, these mini pies are so tasty and keep well in the fridge. The addition of ice cream and hot fudge sauce makes a decadent dessert.
I thought I was going to have to call this post "How NOT to make strawberry mini pies" because I had some difficulty with them, which I'll explain below. In the end, they were SO good that I'll definitely be making them again, with a few modifications.
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Welcome to the July Pinterest Challenge, hosted by Cindy of
County Road 407. We're
a group of home decor and DIY bloggers who take on a new challenge each month. If you're coming from First Day of Home, welcome! I'm sure Crissy's strawberry cheesecake is divine! As you can see, this month we're veering away from our regular DIY and decor ideas and sharing recipes using
fresh strawberries instead! It is summer after all! 🍓
Our strawberry recipe challenge is inspired by Lucinda's gorgeous image. Doesn't this image make you want to sink your teeth
into those sun ripened berries?
Who doesn't love gorging on sweet and ripe strawberries during the summer? I
love berries all year long, but their sweetness is certainly at its peak in
the summer.
As far as desserts go, strawberry mini pies are right up our alley. We are a
pie loving family. We don't do cake...we do pie! Mr DIY's favorite is my mom's
Perfect Apple Pie Recipe
and his mom's
Fresh Strawberry Pie. We all love grandma's
Chocolate Fudge Pie and we even love to make
Cinnamon Pinwheel Cookies
with leftover pie crust! Growing up, my mom made the best banana cream
pie and I haven't had it in years. Going to have to remedy that soon 😋
But today I'm sharing a recipe for mini strawberry pies that I adapted
from A Latte Food. I had never made small hand-size pies before and I found it a little bit
challenging but they were so good that I quickly forgot how fussy they were!
And I definitely plan to make them again soon, with some filling variations
that I think will make them come together much quicker and easier (I'll share
below).
How to Make Mini Strawberry Pies
Pie Crust Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup all purpose flour
Filling Ingredients
- 3/4 cup finely diced strawberries
- 2-3 Tbsp granulated sugar
- zest of half a small lemon
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 heaping Tbsp cornstarch
Other
- 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
- powdered sugar (for rolling out crust)
Preheat oven to 350°
Add parchment paper to cookie sheet
Make the crust
This crust was new to me. I normally make my mom's super flaky pie crust using
shortening or lard (or more often I use a store-bought crust), so the addition
of the cream cheese was interesting. I mixed the butter and cream cheese
together until it was fluffy, added the flour and mixed until it came
together. I used my stand mixer, and it came together beautifully. Because
it's so moist, the pie dough does need to be refrigerated for 30 min to firm
up. Just wrap in plastic wrap and pop into the fridge.
Note: this is enough to make one single crust for a regular size pie
Make the filling
Mix up the filling ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Roll out dough
The cream cheese dough is very moist! I rolled mine to about 1/4" onto a large
silpat mat
that I have, and I used powdered sugar to dry it out a bit as I was rolling
(you could also use flour). Because the dough is so moist, you can re-roll it
multiple times without worrying about the pie crust getting overly dry.
Definitely a plus!
Cut out rounds for mini pies
Don't make them too small! I love mini pies, but this is where I think I made
my mistake. The dough rounds I cut out were so small that it was very
difficult to wrap around the strawberry filling without everything wanting to
just ooze out. I have a set of biscuit cutters (see similar
here) and
I should have used the largest one, rather than the one I chose to use.
Knowing that this is the most difficult part of making these mini pies, here
are some tips you can try that will help to eliminate the ooze:
- roll rounds larger
- use 2 rounds of dough per mini pie (setting on top of each other so pies are round rather than half rounds) - you will need extra dough for this so plan on an extra batch
- use jam rather than a runny filling made from fresh fruit to save both on assembly time and frustration (this is how I plan to make them in the future)
Assemble pies
Once the rounds are all rolled out and carefully placed on the cookie sheet,
it's time to add the strawberry filling.
Before doing so, drain filling in a colander to remove any excess
juiciness, otherwise it will be difficult to seal the edges of the pie
crust.
Add about a tsp of filling to the dough, pull the edge over to the other side
and crimp closed with a fork. Mine are a little too full 😕
Bake strawberry mini pies at 350° 30-35 minutes or until pies are golden
brown.
Your pies may look like this if you did what I did: namely, added too much
filling to dough rounds that were too small!!! However, the pies released
easily from the baking sheet, leaving all that sticky burnt stuff behind!
Lesson learned!
I sprinkled them with powdered sugar once they cooled, and they actually
look edible now!
If you haven't tried baking mini pies before, please read all my tips and then
do yourself (and your family a favor) and make these. Pronto! I'm excited to
try them again with raspberry preserves, and I think Nutella would be amazing
too! See how I updated this recipe for a no-fuss version here!
Like it? Pin it to Remember it! 🍓
Make sure to head to Sweet Pea next and check out Paula's strawberry dream tart recipe! You can find links to all the other strawberry recipes below!
What's your favorite strawberry dessert?
bringing beauty to the ordinary,
Your strawberry mini pies looks scrumptious and I can't wait to try your recipe.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paula!
DeleteHi Cindy, These look great! Also, I appreciate your lessons and tips because most of my recipes go sideways. The powdered sugar is a great tip too to make them look pretty! Pinning! laura
ReplyDeleteThanks Laura! I'm relieved these turned out as well as they did, but I'll make them with jam from now on 😉
DeleteWell I learned 3 new things today! 1. That a pie crust could be so easy. I never knew it had cream cheese in it! 2. That Sanding Sugar was a thing. 3. I have to try this recipe! You make it look easy. Thank you for joining in. Pinned!
ReplyDeleteThanks Cindy, aside from my runny filling, they were easy to make...and sooo good!
DeleteI love making hand pies because they make me feel like a real baker and they always look pretty! Can't wait to try your cream cheese piecrust. Pinning!
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes! Hope you enjoy them, the crust is amazing!
DeleteThese look delicious, and they are so cute! I've pinned to try later AND followed you on Pinterest!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Niky @ The House on Silverado
Thanks Niky, you will love them!
DeleteThe strawberry hand pies are adorable... but, I agree... I would make them a bit larger. Simply because 2 or three bites ain't gonna cut it in our family! LOL! Pinned, and always love doing these hops with you!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I agree Julie... although 2 small pies with ice cream was the perfect size!
DeleteI love these mini pies, Cindy! They remind me of some empanadas that I like to make, but I’ve never tried strawberry filling. I would never have known about your baking challenges. They look perfectly delicious to me!
ReplyDeleteThanks Crissy, I love any kind of pie and the handheld version is so fun!
DeleteCindy, you may have had issues making your mini~pies, but they turned out so pretty. Baking is a science and an art. I’m always tweaking a recipe. Good for you for sticking with it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carol, you're absolutely right that baking is a science, and I almost always tweak recipes!
DeleteThese are the cutest and sweetest little pies! They look so yummy and would be perfect for brunch! Pinned!
ReplyDeleteI can't decide if I want to look at how adorable they are or eat them! LOL! I'll do both. Yummy! Love that set of biscuit cutters.
ReplyDelete