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Darcie Bakes //

September 3, 2017

Mini Mixed Berry Pies.

mixedberriespies_cover

First of all, Happy Labor Day, friends! I hope you’re enjoying your day off, while also remembering why we celebrate Labor Day in the first place. I’m currently roaming around my hometown, but we’ll get to that later. For now, let’s talk about mini pies.

closeupminipieI have made these mini pies multiple times, but these photos are actually from Memorial Day weekend {yeahhh, back in May}, but I am sharing them now because we’re embarking upon Labor Day. I think they’re just perfect for any kind of “patriotic” holiday. But really, they’re perfect for pretty much any occasion. I just decided to get all ‘MERICA with them here.

sprankles
{Patriotic sprinkles! I found these at our beloved Target a while back.}
pieniceream
{Melting ice cream + warm pie = one of my favorite combinations on this earth.}

Pie is awesome. And mini pies are slightly more awesome. Why? Because anything miniature is just so darn cute! They’re also quite easy to make: you just roll out your chilled dough, toss a circle of dough in a cupcake tin, add your filling, and then add your top crust. Once you’ve assembled several, throw ’em in the oven to bake! Super cute, super impressive, and much easier than they look [also a heck of a lot less fussy than a whole pie, but you didn’t hear that from me].

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// Mini Mixed Berry Pies.

Yield: I doubled the crust recipe (below) to get about six mini pies that will fit in cupcake tins. You may also use the recipe below as is, and make two mini mason jar lid pies [just reduce the amount of filling].

Ingredients:

For the crust:

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
  • 1/4 tsp. coarse salt
  • 3 TBSP. unsalted butter, cold
  • 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 2-3 TBSP. ice-cold water

For the filling:

  • 1 pound mixed berries [You can use frozen if you wish.]
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Cornstarch slurry
For the tops of the pies:
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • Coarse sugar (e.g. turbinado sugar)

Instructions:
For the crust:

  1. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and salt with a fork. Cube the butter into 12 chunks, and add half of them to the flour mixture.
  2. Stir gently, and then add the remaining butter chunks. Next, using your thumb and index finger [make the “snapping” motion] in order to incorporate the butter chunks into the flour mixture.
  3. Work the butter into the flour for quite a while, making sure it’s evenly incorporated and the dough almost comes together in clumps when you squeeze it in your hands. [The warmth of your hands is bringing the dough together, so if it’s still flour-y, keep working it.]
  4. Finally, add the vinegar and 2 TBSP. of the ice-cold water. Stir with a fork and the dough will easily come together into a mass. You may need a bit more water, depending on the humidity in your area on a given day.
  5. Scoop the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, shape it into a disk and store it wrapped in the fridge for 30 minutes, while you make the filling.

For the filling:

 

1. Make the filling while the dough is chilling: In a small pot on the stove, add your mixed berries, sugar, and lemon juice.
2. Cook on medium low heat for 12-15 minutes until the berries are soft and can be mashed down. The filling will still be too liquidy so make a cornstarch slurry (a few tsp. of cornstarch with some water) and pour it in the pot.
3. Stir the mixture until it thickens up nicely. Set aside for it to cool a bit before assembling your pies.

To assemble the pies:.

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and lightly grease 6 muffin cups in your muffin tin.
  2. Once dough is ready, take it out of the fridge and let it warm up for a few minutes.
  3. Roll out one half on the counter top and cut out circles with the largest biscuit cutter you have (or use a large glass; the circle just needs to be larger than the muffin cup).
  4. Place the circles in the muffin cups and crimp down the sides.
  5. Place the cooled filling into the cups, almost until full.
  6. Take the other half of the dough and roll it out. Using a ravioli cutter, cut thin strips of dough to create a lattice pattern on top of the mini pies.
  7. Once you’re done assembling, beat an egg for the egg wash. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top for extra crunch, if desired.
  8. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until they’re nice and golden brown on top.
  9. Allow the pies to cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes before trying to remove from pan.

// Recipe Inspiration + Resources:
+
Mixed berry filling recipe + muffin tin baking method inspired from Table for Two Blog.
+ Pie crust recipe from Dessert for Two.

piecut
{A beautiful mess.}

Leave a Comment Filed Under: blueberries, butter, cherries, mini pies, miniatures, mixed berries, pie, strawberry

June 10, 2015

Strawberry Lattice Pie.

As you know, I am currently in Germany for a study abroad trip with some people from my undergraduate class. We’re here for an IT security seminar at one of the universities, plus we’re spending some time doing touristy stuff and just exploring.

One of my new friends just had his birthday while we’ve been out here, so I wanted to bake something for him. He requested a pie, but he said that overall, he didn’t care what I ended up making. I decided to try to conquer a pie anyway. Pie has always intimidated me, and unless you’re a baker, you probably won’t understand why. Pies seem so simple. And they really are. That phrase “easy as pie” doesn’t exist for nothin’. The fruit fillings have always been easy, but it’s the crust that tends to be the bane of many bakers’ existence. Leave it to me to try to conquer something that scares me in a foreign country. [I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.]

Strawberry Pie
[It’s very juicy!]
So the grocery shopping for ingredients began. I must’ve spent at least four hours searching for ten ingredients. It’s hard to go grocery shopping when you can’t read German. 😉 Eventually, I found just about everything, although I had to make a few minor substitutions. And I’ve discovered that the secret to the best pie crust ever is buttermilk. I don’t really like buttermilk that much [it smells pretty unpleasant], but it really is the shiznit for baking.

I made this pie in the kitchen in our hostel. And it was actually a lot of fun, once I got past trying to convert tablespoons to grams and Fahrenheit to Celsius. Haha. The German people who are living in the same hostel were both very confused and curious about what I was doing. Apparently, Germans don’t really have a word for pie. They call it kuchen [pronounced “kuh-khen” with that back-of-the-throat, hock-a-loogie type of sound in the middle of the word]. Kuchen is also synonymous for cake. I always thought kuchen meant cake, but I think it’s sort of a catch-all phrase for sweet desserts.

Okay, so this pie. The crust is perfect. I’ve found that even if I do things correctly and follow directions, I still have never been overly impressed with pie doughs. But the crust is on point, as my friends would say. It’s flaky and buttery and perfect. The strawberry filling is juicy and sweet and just perfect. That’s all there is to say. If I can make this pie in a foreign country, then you can surely make this pie in your own kitchen. It was worth all the hassle and anxiety that went along with searching for ingredients and converting measurements. I even said to my fellow travel buddies, “I swear, if this pie doesn’t turn out after all this bullshit, I am going to start crying!” Luckily, it turned out fine. Our new German friends even enjoyed a slice with vanilla bean ice cream. 🙂

This pie has actually inspired me to MAKE ALL THE PIES! from here on out. I really need to up my pie game as a baker. And that’s WHAT’S UP. 

PS: Happy Birthday, Randall! Prost!

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Strawberry Lattice Pie.
Yield:
One 8 or 9 inch pie.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
– 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
– 2 TBS. granulated sugar
– 3/4 tsp. salt
– 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
– 1/2 cup cold buttermilk

For the strawberry filling:
– 5-6 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
– 1/3 cup granulated sugar
– 1/3 cup raw cane sugar [or brown sugar, but I couldn’t find any]
– 1/4 cup cornstarch [I used flour as the thickener since I couldn’t find cornstarch here]
– Pinch of salt
– Dash of pure vanilla extract
– 2 TBS. fresh lemon juice
– heaping 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
– 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 1 large egg, beaten and raw cane sugar [similar to turbinado sugar] for topping the unbaked pie

Instructions:
1. To make the crust: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the cold, cubed butter to the dry ingredients.
2. Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture, and quickly break it down. The size of the butter pieces may vary; this is okay. You want chunks of butter throughout the crust.
3. Create a well in the middle of the mixture, and pour in cold buttermilk [Note: I added about a tablespoon or two more of milk than the recipe called for]. Use a fork to bring the dough together, moistening all of the flour bits.
4. On a lightly floured work surface, dump out the dough mixture. It will be very shaggy and moist; that is how it’s supposed to look. Divide the dough in half, and gently knead into two disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour. You must let the dough rest and chill in the fridge for it to work correctly.
5. To make the filling: toss together the strawberries, sugars, cornstarch (or flour), salt, lemon juice, vanilla, and spices. Toss until all of the cornstarch (or flour) has disappeared, and allow to sit for ten minutes. The strawberries will produce their own juice.
6. To assemble the pie: On a well-floured surface, roll the bottom crust about 1/8″ thick, and about 12″ in diameter. Transfer to the pie pan, and trim the edge almost even with the edge of the pan. Spoon your filling into the crust.
7. Roll out the top crust in the same manner, then use a pizza slicer to slice the dough into 1-inch strips. Weave the strips on top of the pie to make a lattice. The Kitchn has a helpful guide, if you’re not sure how to make a lattice crust.
8. To finish, place a rack in the center of your oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Beat the egg to make an egg wash, then brush over prepared pie crust. Sprinkle with sugar.
9. Place pie on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake for about thirty more minutes, or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

– Recipe slightly adapted from Joy the Baker.

holdingpie
{Hi it’s me. I like holding pie!}

Leave a Comment Filed Under: buttermilk, pie, strawberry

April 27, 2015

Strawberry Banana Muffins.

strawbanmuffins

So, I realize that I have talked about what I want/need in a muffin in the past. My ideal muffin has to be moist [sorry/not sorry]. It has to be flavorful. It has to be light enough and not overly dense. Well, although I am a huge fan of the vegan chocolate chip banana oat muffins, I have to say that these strawberry banana muffins are my absolute favorite.

muffinstack

The recipe for these muffins is actually for a loaf bread. So of course, you can make a quick bread if you want. For some unknown reason, I’ve always just preferred to make the batter into muffins. The first time I ever made these muffins was approximately two years ago, back when I was living at home. My brother ate one and immediately asked, “Do we have to share these with anyone else?” Yup, they’re that good.

muffinstin
{I just love this vintage eight-cup muffin tin!}

These mofos were also a huge hit at work when I finally made them again a few weeks ago. And they’re just so freakin’ moist; it’s insane. Again, I’m sorry/not sorry for the usage of the word “moist.” But damn. I do actually bake them long enough, and as you can tell, the tops of them turn a nice golden brown color. And yet they’re still incredibly moist, thanks to the banana, the Greek yogurt, and the diced strawberries studded throughout them.

muffinstray
{I found this yellow gingham tray on my whirlwind trip to Portland. It’s just the bees knees.}

My roommate says that it’s often difficult to discern whether or not I’m actually enjoying something, because I don’t tend to display many extreme emotions. It is true: I tend to not really have extreme [outward] reactions to most things. I’m a very introverted, in-my-own-head-way-too-much, mostly laid back person. Of course, I have emotions, but I’m just really bad at displaying excitement, plus I’m a naturally more chill person, I guess. And it’s sometimes also difficult to express crazy emotions via written communication. That being said, I just have to say that OMFG THESE MUFFINS ARE FREAKING AMAZING!!!!1 Make them as soon as possible. Make them into a loaf; IDGAF. Just make them. Strawberries + Nanners = True Love. They’re effing amazeballs. {I sincerely hope that outburst accurately conveyed my excitement.} 😉

muffinopen
{“Used to be up in them guts like erryday.” – Me, channeling Snoop Dogg every time I am taking close up photos of food.}

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Strawberry Banana Muffins.
Yield: About 24 regular-sized muffins, or you can bake one regular-sized loaf of bread.

Ingredients:
– 2¼ cup all-purpose flour
– 1½ tsp. baking soda
– ¾ tsp. salt
– 1½ cups granulated sugar
– ¾ cup canola or vegetable oil
– 3 large eggs
– ½ cup Greek yogurt
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 2 small bananas, mashed
– 1½ cups strawberries, diced

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin tins with liners [or grease/line with parchment paper a regular-sized loaf pan], and set aside.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a small bowl: flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment [or you can use an electric hand mixer], beat the sugar, oil, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla. Add in your bananas, and beat until combined.
4. Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Fold in strawberries.
5. Pour the batter into your prepared muffin tin [filling cups about 2/3rds of the way full], or loaf pan.
  • NOTE 01. Loaf Pan: If baking a loaf, bake for one hour, rotating the pan halfway through. (If the top begins to brown too much, just cover the pan in foil so that it will continue baking without burning the top.)
  • NOTE 02. Muffins: If you’re going the muffin route, bake them for approximately 15-20 minutes. The time may vary, but just err on the side of less time, rather than risking them getting burnt. Start out for about 15 minutes, then check for doneness with a toothpick.
6. Allow to cool on a wire rack, then enjoy. These will keep in an airtight container for a few days; however, they do go moldy really fast due to the moisture content. So eat ’em up!

– Strawberry banana bread recipe from The Crepes of Wrath.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: bananas, muffins, strawberry

November 16, 2014

The [Sorta Great] Homemade Poptart Experiment.

As a kid, I had a very – shall we say – particular method for eating Poptarts. I’ve never been a picky eater, but I just have some strange requirements for consuming certain foods, Poptarts included.

Here were my three mandatory requirements for eating Poptarts when I was a child:

01. I would only eat them un-iced. For some reason, that frosting squicked me out.
02. They absolutely had to be toasted. No raw Poptarts for me; that would make for a desert in my mouth. No me gusta.
03. And my final criterion for Poptarts was that they had to be slathered with a smear of melted real butter [no margarine, eww].

Looking back at my requirements for eating Poptarts makes me laugh now. I haven’t had a Poptart in years. And now, I’m not even sure I’d want to buy a box of them. If my kid self wasn’t too keen on them, I think it’s safe to say that my adult “foodie” self wouldn’t be a fan.

poptarts_coverHomemade Poptarts, though? Count me in!
My roommate and I decided that these homemade Poptarts were going to be our second Roommate Baking Endeavor [it’s a thing now, you know – see our Great Fried Doughnut Experiment post]. And man, was it an experiment. I made the title of this post “[sorta great],” because well, to be honest, these poptarts have a bit of a learning curve. Dani and I made strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon poptarts for our first attempt, and I will share the results plus the recipe with you further on down in this post.

These poptarts are not like the thicker, jam-filled “pop tartlettes” you can often find in bakeries. Of course, those are delicious in their own right [I love getting them from Whisk Bakery, here in STL when I have the chance!]. But the purpose of these homemade poptarts is to essentially mimic the “real” thing.

That plain, thin, flaky crust, with just a thin spread of fruit filling: that’s what these dudes are all about. While they’re not exactly what I’d call healthy [although there is fruit in the strawberry ones, so that has to count for something, right?], they were fun to make. As aforementioned, they definitely have a bit of a learning curve, even to seasoned bakers such as Dani and myself. We struggled with the dough, and we had some trouble with the strawberry filling being too dry, and not “paste-like.”

strawberry
brnsugarcinnDespite our struggles, the end results were tasty, and I have to say that they’re much better than Kellogg’s poptarts. I know that’s a pretty bold statement, but our goal here was to conquer another baking experiment, and we did succeed with that. I’m not sure if I’d ever make them again, but it was pretty fun. Oh yeah, plus it’s excellent fun to tell people that you made homemade poptarts, and their reaction is an amusing combination of intrigue/confusion. 😀 Yes, kids. It CAN be done. And the best part is that these poptarts can easily be veganized and/or made gluten-free! Yay! Homemade poptarts for errybody!

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Homemade Poptarts // Strawberry + Brown Sugar Cinnamon

Ingredients:

For the dough:
10 oz. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
8 oz. cold, unsalted butter, cubed (use shortening for vegan)
6 oz. corn syrup

For the icing:
12 oz. powdered sugar
2 egg whites (use corn syrup for vegan)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
(add cinnamon to the frosting for the brown sugar cinnamon poptarts, if desired)

For the strawberry filling:
2 oz. of freeze-dried strawberries
4 oz. dried pear
4 oz. dried apple (we could only find dried apples, so we used 8 oz. of apples and omitted the pears… you can find these dried fruits at Trader Joe’s)
1 oz. corn syrup

For the brown sugar cinnamon filling:
3 oz. fresh bread crumbs (GF bread crumbs work perfectly too)
1 oz. unsalted butter, melted (use shortening (or probably Earth Balance) for vegan)
4 oz. brown sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 oz. corn syrup
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt

**NOTE: The dough recipe above makes approximately twelve 3 1/8″ x 4″ poptarts, at 1/4″ thickness. Each filling recipe will fill those twelve poptarts. So we made two batches of the tart dough, two batches of icing, one batch of strawberry filling, and one batch of brown sugar cinnamon filling.

Instructions:

For the dough:
1. Carefully measure all the ingredients and pulverize in a food processor until a dough ball begins to form.
2. Remove the dough from the food processor, and pat together into a disk of dough. Wrap with plastic wrap, and allow to be chilled in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

For the strawberry filling:
1. Pulverize all the ingredients in your food processor (hopefully you cleaned it out after making the dough…) until a paste forms.
2. Roll out the fruit filling on a cutting board, and cut into rectangles that are slightly smaller than 3×4″ (so they’ll be a bit smaller than your dough rectangles). Set aside until ready to assemble the poptarts.

For the brown sugar cinnamon filling:
1. Pulverize all the ingredients in a clean food processor until you get a paste (it will be softer and more liquid-like than the fruit paste; this is normal). Set aside until ready to assemble poptarts.

Assembling the poptarts:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out chilled dough on a heavily floured surface until it’s 1/4″ thick. Cut into 3 1/8″ x 4″ rectangles.
2. Place dough rectangles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. For the strawberry poptarts, place a fruit rectangle on top of one piece of dough, then top that with another piece of dough.
3. Press the edges together, but don’t crimp them. The dough will naturally kind of seal itself together.
4. For the brown sugar cinnamon poptarts, place a tablespoon of the filling on top of the dough rectangles. Spread it out a bit, then top that with another rectangle of dough. Again, press the edges together, but don’t worry about going too crazy; it’ll seal itself like magic.
5. Bake the poptarts for about 20 minutes. Normally, I love golden brown everything, but the point of these poptarts is to mimic the real thing. So basically, they need to look borderline anemic. Allow to cool.

For the icing:
1. In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients until a thin icing is formed. Pipe the frosting around the edges of the cooled poptarts. You can pipe with a plastic Ziplock bag with the corner clipped off, or use a small piping bag and tip.
2. After piping around the edges, add some water to the frosting in the bowl and stir until it’s a thinner consistency. Pipe that thinner icing inside of the rectangle of icing you just piped. Spread until it evenly covers the top of the poptart.
3. Note: This frosting is pretty much just like royal icing, so if you know how it works, then you’ll be golden.

*BONUS* Notes + Tips from Dani and Darcie’s Test Kitchen:

– Make sure that the dough is chilled properly. This is non-negotiable. I like shortcuts as much as the next person, and I will admit that I find dough-chilling to be somewhat of a nuisance. But you can’t mess around with this dough. It needs to be chilled for at least 30 minutes, as the recipe says. You must also work with it while it’s still chilled. This dough is a bit difficult to work with, so don’t mess around with it, or you’re gonna have a bad time.
– Use a bunch of flour or powdered sugar when rolling out the dough. This is also non-negotiable. As I said, the dough is kind of sticky and can be difficult to work with. Rolling it out with either powdered sugar or flour will make your life so much easier.
– Don’t overstuff the dough with the filling. It’ll make them spread and then your poptarts will be deformed and weird-looking (kind of like ours, but hey, can’t always be perfect).
– For us, the strawberry filling was a bit drier than we anticipated. Freeze-dried strawberries have absolutely no moisture. Dried apples have some moisture, but we found that it was difficult to get that proper “paste” for the fruit filling. We tried adding water and more corn syrup, which helped a bit.
– Using a food processor for this made life easier. You could certainly mash/mix everything by hand, with an electric mixer, or with a stand mixer. But honestly? Pulverizing everything in the food processor was much easier. Minus cleaning up the sticky fruit paste, that is. 
– A food scale is very useful for this project. Here’s an embarrassing baker’s confession for ya: despite the fact that I own a food scale, I have never used one for baking. I have always relied on measuring cups, and for some silly reason, the numbers intimidated me. However, the recipe’s source suggests just weighing everything by ounces, and she was right: it is a lot easier and perhaps a bit more foolproof. I’d recommend trying it out if you can.
– Poptarts really are better when eaten on the second day. Brave Tart was right again: they are better on the second day! Who knew.

– Dough and icing recipe can be found here, from Brave Tart.
– Filling recipes also from Brave Tart.

datbrickwalldoe
I drank pineapple-banana-orange juice with mine, but I guess you could drink milk with yours. I’m just one of those weird people who hates cow’s milk.

PS: Thanks for getting this far and reading this novel of a post! You go, Glen Coco.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: breakfast, brown sugar, cinnamon, poptarts, strawberry

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I'm Darcie. In a nutshell: I'm a baker and mental health advocate in the tech industry.
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