"That's SO in Season" Fruit Pies

Two nights ago, I spent four hours frantically baking miniature pies and cookies in my kitchen. Though the first batch was a disaster (more on this in future posts about pie crust problems), the second batch was juuust lovely. I mean, look at those little tiny pies up there. Adorbs. I made blueberry, apricot, and peach pies for a friend in LA. Then I sent everything off in a big box in the morning. UPS says it will arrive at his doorstep in about an hour. What can I say? He's a lucky man.

My roommate named these pies the "That's SO in season" pies after a saying that her best friend always uses. Instead of referring to things as "awesome" or "sweet," he says "Dude... that's so in season." It's a little joke about the smugness of San Franciscans and their locavore/organic/all-natural/granola tendencies, but it's also just a hilarious and strangely apt way of saying that something is just right or just as it was meant to be. 

Fruit pies are a southern summer staple. In my house, they were served with homemade ice cream, whipped cream, or Cool Whip. Sigh. Drool.

Here are some photos followed by a foolproof recipe for seasonal fruit pies.

This image via makeandtake; it shows how to cut out the mini crusts with Tupperware

Pressing Pie Dough into Tins

Cut out a smaller top for the pie, and make sure to press it firmly onto the base

It's super easy to make little lattice crusts for the blueberry pies. They're juicy, so this works well for them.

Easy as Pie (Note: pie is not easy)

Then sprinkle with sugar, wrap 'em up, send 'em off

"That's SO IN SEASON" Fruit Pies

Ingredients

Pie dough of your choice (enough for a 9" pie pan)

4 cups of seasonal fruit, sliced (I split this into 4 bowls and made 4 types of fillings)

3 tbsp cornstarch (or flour, but I prefer cornstarch because it congeals better)

3/4 cup sugar

Squeeze of a lemon

Pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

OPTIONAL: Milk (for brushing over the tops before baking)

OPTIONAL: Powdered sugar (for sprinkling over the tops after baking)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Cut the pie crust out into circles and press up against the sides of a non-stick muffin tin.

2. Mix together the fruit, cornstarch, flour, and spices. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over everything, depending on how tart you like your pies.

3. Pour into mini pie crusts. Cut out tops for the crusts and press them onto the bases, or create little lattice crusts from your leftover pie dough pieces.

4. Optional: Brush with milk (this will make them shiny and pretty for presentation purposes)

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are slightly brown. Remove from oven and allow to sit in pan for about 10 minutes to cool. Remove from pan by inserting a knife around the edges. The pies should pop right out. If they don't, your crust is a wee bit too, well, crusty. You've either added too much fat, not enough water, or you didn't mix the dough well enough. Take heed. Learn from the process. It's very zen.

6. Let cool on a wire rack. You can sprinkle them with powdered sugar once they're cool, but these babies taste best when they're warm from the oven. 

Enjoy these. After all, they're SO in season.

Flour and Sugar,
Carrie Melissa