Rob and I recently vacationed with friends in Asheville, NC. Asheville’s a true foodie haven if ever there was one, and we stopped (natch) at the fantastic downtown farmers’ market on Saturday morning to grab coffee and baked goodies for breakfast, plus provisions for several dinners.
One of our mantras is: It ain’t vacation if you don’t have pie. So our shopping list included pie of some variety. We weren’t disappointed: Pies in Disguise was there, with an assortment of supercute mini pies that Eliza Sydney had baked in muffin tins. Eureka! I knew I had to try this idea when I got home. And once I tried it, I knew I had to share the recipe for mini fruit pies with all of you.
There’s a trick, I discovered, to fitting pie dough into muffin cups, so see the instructions below. As you might imagine, this mini pie recipe would work with any kind of filling, including fruit, nut or custard. Get creative!
mini fruit pie recipe
(makes 6)
recipe for a single pie crust
4 cups fruit (see Note)
2–4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. bourbon (optional)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 6-hole muffin with cooking spray.
Prepare filling by tossing fruit with sugar, cornstarch and bourbon, if using. Let sit while you make the pie crust. Note: I used a combination of peaches, peeled and diced, and blueberries. Use your favorite pie fruits: apple, cherry, berry, peach, whatever.
Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/8 inch (a bit thinner than you might typically roll your pie dough). Find something in your kitchen (a canister lid, a coffee can, whatever) that measures 4 3/4 to 5 inches in diameter, or cut a cardboard template to that dimension. Use the tip of a paring knife to cut out circles of dough. With the knife, cut a wide V-shaped wedge from each circle—don't cut quite to the center of the circle. Run a wet fingertip along one edge of the V, then overlap the other edge and press to seal firmly. You'll have a wide cone-shaped circle of dough. Ease this gently into a greased muffin cup, folding pleats if needed to fit the dough into the cup. Make sure you don't have any holes; if you do, patch them with scrap dough. Repeat to make 6 individual pie crusts.
Generously fill the pie shells with your fruit filling, mounding the fruit in the center. Place the muffin pan on a large sheet of foil, then place on the center rack of your oven. Bake 425 for 15 minutes; reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for 30–40 minutes more, until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown. Remove the pan form the oven and let cool for a few minutes; run a thin spatula around the perimeter of each mini fruit pie to loosen it. Cool pies completely in the pan before removing them to a serving plate.
I love mini desserts! I’ve got a fridge full of mulberries, and now I know just what to do with them. Thank you for the tip on cutting the dough so it fits in the pan. I’ve made more than my share of mini quiches, pies, etc. and cutting a large notch in the dough has never occurred to me. Geesh. Thank you Bryn!
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