Dawn of the Mini Pie

Since the infamous John Tyler pie disaster, I've mostly been eating pies made by other people. But in honor of the Foxfield Races tomorrow, I've taken the leap into the world of mini pies. Friends have been sending me links to mini pies for ages, and while I recognize that tiny food is very cute, I've been putting off making them because they seem like so much work. It turns out that they are so fun! I made one batch of Derby pies, and one batch of rhubarb custard, and if it wasn't 1 am, I would get to work on mixed berry....

When baked in muffin tins, filling for a regular 9 inch pie makes about 16 - 18 mini pies. You will use about twice as much dough as for a regular pie though, so fill your fridge with dough balls before you start. I was lazy and only made open-topped pies. I cut down a coffee filter to make a template until I got a handle for how much dough I needed for each pie. For one mini pie, I used a ball of dough about equal to a walnut in shell. I ended up rolling each crust out individually and then pressing them into the tins. Crusts this small are very easy to roll out, and if the edges are irregular, it still looks fine. Oh, and in retrospect, Derby pie was not the best choice for mini pies; you get a much higher crust to filling ratio with little pies, so the effect here is very much like a chocolate chip cookie wrapped in pie dough. But maybe you're into that kind of thing...

The great thing about making mini pies is that you can be really flexible. I made up the first six pies just to see if they would work, and then did a whole pan using the rest of the filling. And unlike making one whole pie, you can sample these before serving. I'm also eyeing my freezer full of dribs and drabs of summer fruits and thinking about making a whole variety of pies at once. I've seen my future and it is full of tiny, tiny pies.

Worst. Pie. Ever.

For those of you who have been clamoring for me to replace the photos of the poor maligned hard boiled egg pie, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that obviously, those photos have been superseded by a new pie. The bad news is that it is arguably the most disgusting disaster of a pie that I have made yet.

My boss Jeff and I decided to use the occasion of president John Tyler's birthday as an excuse to have a bake off. Neither of us had ever made what is known variously as a John Tyler pie, a John Tyler pudding pie, a Tyler pudding, etc. It's basically a custard pie. I chose to use a recipe from The First Ladies Cookbook for a John Tyler pie with coconut. I took this very seriously too. I read general tips on custard pies in The Joy of Cooking, followed the very detailed pre-baking-of-crust instructions in another cookbook, and pan-toasted coconut to go on top. And let me just say, that if this had been a pie beauty contest, I think my pie would have won, hands down. But alas, despite multiple cookbooks telling me that a custard pie would be set, but still jiggly, I took my pie out too early, and when cut into, it was raw in the middle. And not just raw, but it oozed this bizarre yellow goo. Which led to jokes about Tyler's presidency being as half-baked as his pie, and to the lunchroom query of "can I drain you a piece of pie?"

Jeff's pie earned 4 votes on the tally sheet by the end of the day, and mine earned the comment "are you for real?" which I think amounts to about negative 5 points. The real kicker is that even Jeff's pie (which was hands down the contest winner) did not get finished. This is really saying something in an office where the lunch crowd once finished up unidentifiable leftovers that had been dubbed "alien autopsy." I think the real mystery now is not how John Tyler came to have his own pie, but how it has stayed in existence so long....

I think I'm going to have to demand a re-match.

National Pie Day '09: Hard Boiled Egg Pie

I've been wanting to make this pie for ages now, and today seemed like an appropriate occasion. I used a recipe from Retro Pies by Linda Everett which claims that hard boiled egg pie originated in Arkansas in the 1820s. We'll have to poke around and see if we can find any evidence of this. I realize that the pictures look kind of gross, but it smells really good and passes my test by containing only ingredients that I like. The pictures you are seeing are sliced eggs in a pre-cooked crust, eggs with sauce and veggies on top, and pie with pre-baked crust rounds on top. The sauce is kind of a white sauce with cheese and sherry and there are onions, celery and peas tossed in. This is either going to be delicious, or really foul.

National Pie Day '09: Sour Cream Blackberry Pie

I've been craving some kind of berry pie, and since I've tried Aunt Ruby Alice's sour cream pie recipe with almost every other type of fruit, it seemed like time to go back to the original recipe and use blackberries. Hopefully I've cooked it enough; I have a tendency to under cook this pie. Here it is pre-cooking.

National Pie Day '09: Apple Custard Pie

The pies are starting to stack up in anticipation of National Pie Day tomorrow. First out of the oven was the apple custard pie. I wanted to do at least one apple pie, but was frankly feeling too lazy to do a double crust. My New Year's resolutions include baking more pies and getting back specifically to improving my apple pie. Plus, I am growing to love fruit custard pies. This recipe reminded me of a light, eggy, apple pancake. The pie smelled lovely going into the oven, but as soon as it was too late to do so I wondered if perhaps I should have added some vanilla. Next time. I used a variety of apples in the hopes that interesting apple flavors would counteract the potential blandness of the custard. I think the final mix I used was Granny Smith, Macintosh, and Virginia Gold. You'll notice the big glob of cinnamon that resulted from my attempts to decoratively sprinkle the whole thing one last time before baking it. I include before and after baking photos.

Here Comes National Pie Day!

Dear fellow Friends of Pie,

As some of you are aware, last year, I hosted the first annual Pie Appreciation Contest in honor of National Pie Day (January 23rd). The entries were all so inspiring and exciting that I then commenced my personal Pie Odyssey to better enjoy, experience, and promote pie. So it is only fitting that I revisit my roots and announce: The Second Annual Pie Appreciation Contest! Hooraaaayyyyy!

Those pie lovers among you who participated in last year's contest will remember that this is not a baking or recipe contest. This is about proving who loves pie the most, and the lengths that you will go to prove it, so non-bakers are more than welcome to enter. The categories of entry are the same, although the prizes are actually being arranged in advance this year and they are sooooo cool (P.S., If you entered last year and I never told you, your prize was the homemade pie of your choice; contact me for details).

The contest features the following four areas of competition:

1. Best photograph of a pie or slice of pie made or eaten by entrant in honor of National Pie Day. Entries will be judged on quality of photograph as well as perceived tastiness of the pie. Pie can be either sweet or savory. Note: you do not have to have made the pie, as long as you consume it. Since we are all amateurs however, homemade pies will not be judged on as strict an aesthetic basis.

2. Best popular song rewritten to honor pie. You do not have to record this, just send me your pie lyrics.

3. Best essay about a personal experience you have had making or eating a pie. 500 words or less please.

4. Wild Card: if none of these categories appeal to you, do something special to demonstrate your devotion to pie (i.e., eat 10 or more pieces in a day, knit a pie, choreograph a dance about pie, write a great pie joke etc.)

Contest Rules: Entries must be original to this year's contest. Collaboration between participants is fine, but if you collaborate, only one entry per household or group per category. Otherwise, you may each enter every category once. You can enter as many categories as you chose. In the unlikely event of a four category sweep by a single individual, I will get very excited and you will get some kind of extra prize. Probably a pie. All entries must be submitted via e-mail to me by 8 p.m. eastern on Friday, 23 Jan. Judging will be arbitrary and irrational, and no complaints about judging will be entertained. I reserve the right to make up new rules as the contest progresses. Entries will be posted on the blog with your first name and hometown. Now go enjoy some pie!