A Half Cup

I just stumbled on this great post over at Our Best Bites (highly recommend), for single serving pies, or as I’m calling them “Personal Pies.”

Here are the reasons I’ve come up with so far, that make this one of the top 3 best inventions for Fall:

-Send them to your friends that live far away
-Take a picnic with your significant other, and bring these as desserts
-Have a bunch of friends over, and let everyone make their own, and bake them while you carve pumpkins
-Use up your remaining fruit, assemble a bunch and freeze them for later
-Prepare yourself for a depressing winter by stock piling surprise versions for January, February and March (just seal them tightly and when you go to bake them, you won’t know what you’ve got till they’re done!)
-You get to vary your topping so you can do lattice, crumble, traditional or open!
-Everyone loves some kind of pie, so you can call your friends, find out their fave, make and send for the holidays (or take over to their house and surprise them!)

Oh my gosh, I really love Fall!

Quick, someone find me a pile of leaves to jump in!

Thanks for the great idea, ladies!

“Personal Pies”

Pie in Jar

You’ll need half-pint jars.

Step 1: Pie Dough
The first thing you’ll need is dough. You can use any pie dough you like. (Refer to my recipe for the fruit tart crust, it’s perfect since you just push it into place, no rolling -except for your tops if you want).   Or if you’re really in a pinch, even a store bought crust will do.

Step 2: Make a topper and line the jar
Roll out a small handful of dough. This is just for the tops of your pies, so eyeball about that much. Grab the ring part of your jar and use that as your cookie cutter. Brilliant, right? Cut out the tops and set aside.

Use the rest of the dough to line the jars. (No, you do not need to grease them) The great part is that there’s no rolling required! Just take little pieces and press them in. Make sure it’s pressed all the way up to the top of the jar, or pretty close to it.

Step 3: Fill ‘er up
You’ll need about 1/2 C filling for each jar. You can use any filling your little pie-craving heart desires, even (gasp) canned! You can also use the same method shown in the galette post to use any fruit you happen to have around.

Here’s the basic recipe (for 4 pies)
2 C prepared fruit (pitted, diced, peeled, etc.)
2 T sugar- brown or white (use more or less depending on sweetness of fruit)
2 T flour- (again, more if your fruit is super juicy like cherries, less if it’s pretty dry)
1 T butter (divided between the pies)
Seasonings/flavorings- cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and almond extract, citrus zest etc)

Play around with it and come up with something yummy! I made 2 different pies in my pictures: one, a cut-down version of Kate’s Apple Pie and one with fresh cherries and almond extract.

When your filling is all combined, divide it between the jars and dot a pat of butter on top (about 1/4 T)

Step 4: Top it off
Make sure your “lid” has a vent so steam can escape. You can use a knive to make a couple of slits or a tiny cookie cutter to make it decorative. When your topper is ready, slip it onto the top of the pie. It will be large enough that the outside edge goes up the side of the dough-covered jar a bit. Then use your finger, or a fork, to press the 2 pieces of dough together to seal.

Another option is to do a crumb topping. I put a basic crumb topping on my cherry pies and they were sooo yummy.