Yes, my daughter and I love to bake in the summer. We usually turn the oven on earlier during the cooler hours of the day. And we try to bake a lot in one go. My daughter was in the mood for pie. Melissa’s Produce sent us a delicious bag of cherries which we used to make mini sized cherry pies. We love to bake together but this time I encouraged my daughter to make the pies on her own while I supervised. She’s becoming a confident baker and she loves to spoil her dad with yummy treats. She especially feels good when her dad asks, “You made this?!”
We pulled out our ingredients, muffin tin and refrigerated pie crust. The ingredients are simple but the majority of time goes into preparing the pies. Especially pitting the cherries! There are various ways to pit cherries. My daughter decided to use a straw to force out the pits. We also tried using the chopstick method but the straw gave us faster and neater results. Make sure to take off the stems and wash the cherries thoroughly.
Here are the instructions for our mini cherry pies. Cherries are usually in season early summer in SoCal but luckily they can be found throughout the year.
INGREDIENTS will make 12 mini cherry pies:
INSTRUCTIONS
1 Take out your pie crust from the refrigerator to bring to room temperature
2 Second, make cherry pie filling for your pies! In a saucepan over medium heat, combine your pitted cherries, water, lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar, and cornstarch. Reduce to low heat and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
3 Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray. You will need a glass to cut/trace out large circles for pie crust. The entire muffin cup needs to lined. Press crust into muffin tins and up over the sides. I found that one pie crust wasn’t enough for 12 so I wound up using a second crust.
4 Once your muffin tin is lined with your pie crust, spoon your cherry filling into the crust until each one is full. Use the remaining scraps of pie crust to create cute toppers for your pie. Slice the scraps into lattice strips with a knife. Make a crosshatch crust or use a cookie cutter to create different shapes. We also totally covered the pies for a third look!
5 We then brushed on some almond milk and sprinkled the remaining sugar over the tops.
6 Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes. Our oven isn’t the best so we did have to experiment with timing but I would suggest checking your tops for a nice golden color.
7 Once baked, let the pies cool slightly, then remove from muffin tin and serve. It’s ready to eat as is or top with your favorite whipped cream recipe or ice cream! Yum!
Thanks to Melissa’s Produce for supplying the cherries!
