Baking Tiny Strawberry Pies!

Hey everyone!
I know it's been a while...sorry! I have no excuse! I did go on vacation but I've been home for two weeks so...I come baring pies! and tiny ones at that!

 

                                                      Alright, Here's what you'll need: 

For the inside of the pie:

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour 

4 cups halved strawberries

1 egg yolk

For the pie crust: (you can always get pre-made dough it just tastes funny to me)
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup ice water
1/4 tsp salt

Other things you'll need:
2 Mixing bowls 
Rolling pin
Pastry blender (not necessary but totally worth getting if you make pie crust often)
Miniature pie pans
Small paint brush

Get your strawberry filling started by mixing the flour and sugar.
Then cut all of your strawberries in halves and measure out 4 cups (it was two baskets of strawberries for me)
Add them to the sugar flour mixture.
You're going to keep mixing them until all the strawberries are covered and then start you pie crust...make sure to stir the strawberries every couple of minutes.
I also mashed mine up a little after about 15 minutes of them absorbing the sugar...its a preference thing no need to do it if you dont want to.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Now for the pie crusts.
Mix your flour and salt.
Then cut in your butter with the pastry blender so the mixture becomes small crumbles of flour covered butter.
Stir in your ice water a small amount at a time.
Eventually the mixture will be mold-able and you can form it into a ball
Cover a clean area with flour and cover your rolling pin with flour as well
Grab a small section thats a little smaller than 1/5 of your entire ball.
I say 1/5 because I had four small pie tins and I wanted another section for the lattices on the top of the pies
Roll it out until its about a 1/4 inch thick... you dont want it to be so thin you can see through and you dont want it to be too thick that you wont have enough remaining for the top layer of crust.

Once you place the dough in the pan, make sure the edges are covered and trim all excess thats hanging over. Save the trimmings to re roll later.
Then comes time to put in your filling!

I filled my pies a little higher than the tin, you can always stack them higher but I barely had enough dough to cover the top of the pies as it was so just be advised.
Then comes the tedious task of the lattice work.
You should have that last section of dough to roll out.
Once its rolled out, use a sharp knife to cut small stripes along the whole thing, later they will look like this

Again, the size of the stripes are up to you. The thicker you cut them the less strawberry you will see and the smaller you cut them the more work you will have to do haha
After they're cut, I always lay one vertically and one horizontally and figure out the over under situation from there. You will need six stripes of crust for each pie. I ran out a little early as you can see with the pie in the bottom right corner. Normally though the three vertical stripes have the two on the outside matching eachothers over under route and the middle stripe does the opposite...along with the horizontal stripes.
I hope thats not confusing...its a little difficult to type something thats easier to see. Of I can answer any questions you might have!

Once the tops of the pies are beautifully finished, you grab your egg yolk and add a little water to it.
Then you will need a small paint brush or some kind of brush to paint the egg yolk onto the top of the pies. You need to do it semi quickly so it doesnt dry before you can sprinkle the sugar on top. After the pies are latticed, yolked, and sugared place them on a baking sheet to keep them from spilling strawberry goop onto the inside of your stove...trust me, once it spills in there...its like you've created a fire with all the smoke that will come out of your oven! That was my thanksgiving two years ago haha

Anyway! Bake them for 20 Minutes at the 400 degrees we set the stove to earlier and an extra two or three minutes wouldnt kill them in you like your pie extra crispy. 

Then enjoy with the ones you love! That happens to be my roommates for me, we had some baked macaroni and cheese with asparagus and moscato white wine for dinner on memorial day! We ate on our patio and then enjoyed some tiny strawberry pies for dessert!

Here's also some fun pictures from the Doctor who costumes my roommates and I created...We actually one third place in the Aprilween costume contest.

Clarissa was the Doctor, Tara was the Tardis, and I was a weeping angel. Everyone kept calling me a gargoyle and then we realized not enough people watch doctor who haha. Hope you have enjoyed my long overdue post! Maybe I'll share my vacation pictures from Greece, turkey, and Rome on the next one!

Miss and love you always,

Shanna Elyse!