Itty Bitty S'more Pies

I had almost decided to let August quietly slip by without posting because there is nothing in me that wants to bake a pie -- ever. Then this little 4-ingredient recipe popped up in my Pinterest feed and since the word "pie" was in the title, it piqued my interest. Since chocolate was a main ingredient, I decided to go for it.

First, let's be honest. This little revolution of mini muffin versions of everything -- pies, casseroles, breakfasts and such -- is basically a cop out for lazy cooks like me who would rather not fuss with all the ingredients. Dumbed-down versions of the real thing. And I freaking love it, I'm not gonna lie. 

As it turns out, you don't even need a campfire to make s'mores as long as you own a muffin pan. Throw away those dirty sticks; here's the recipe you've been waiting for...

Itty Bitty S'more Pies
Swiped (and slightly altered) from Mess for Less

(For a half dozen muffin pan)

Pie Crust roll or Puff Pastry sheet

2-3 Graham Crackers

1-3 Hershey Bars

6-8 Marshmallows

Note: You're going to eat some of the ingredients (if you're a human) so I took that into account with the measurements.

Preheat oven to 375. Grease your muffin pan. Cut a piece of your pie crust and fit it inside each muffin tin, pressing until it's just right, or you just give up. Break graham cracker into pieces so they fill a good portion of the cup. Leave room for about 3 rectangles of chocolate to layer on top. Put in the oven to bake about 5 minutes. Remove and then place a single marshmallow on top of each tin. Put back in oven for about 10 minutes, or until marshmallows start to brown a bit. Drop another Hershey piece on top just because you can.

Things to consider: 1) Using pie crust. My tiny grocery store did not have any so I was stuck with puff pastry. Still worked. 2) Substituting Golden Grahams cereal for the broken graham cracker. 3) Making a Nutella and crumbled Nilla Wafers version. You can thank me later.

Since I'm pretty sure this recipe was intended for children, I decided to let this guy help me out.

But he ended up doing more of this and then dropping the pieces back into the muffin tins. Secrets in the sauce.

Really yummy and really easy. Pie month success. (Can I be done now?)

Chicken Pot Pie

This is a pie (and pie crust) I can get behind! My friend Jenny first made this recipe for "Grammy's Chicken Pot Pie" from the Simply Classic cookbook for Curtis and me before we were married and it became one of our favorite recipes. Then we had it for dinner the night we got engaged so we associate it with good memories.

It's a little different every time I make it but what really makes this dish is the cream cheese crust. In fact, until now, I've never thought about using this crust recipe for a fruit pie, but I bet it would be awesome.

I made a massive batch of filling, throwing in lots of extra veggies and four crusts so I could share chicken pot pie with my frozen dinner club (or OAMC - once-a-month cooking as Hillary likes to call it) this month.

Uncooked pot pies ready to go in the freezer to share

The original recipe has you cook a whole chicken resulting in homemade stock and chicken for the pot pie. I'm sure that's fabulous, but I cheat (and always have) and just use Costco roast chickens and Kirkland signature chicken broth to keep it simple. 

GRAMMY'S CHICKEN POT PIE
from Simply Classic, The Junior League of Seattle cookbook

Pastry
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 large egg

Filling
1 3-pound chicken, shredded into large chunks
4 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
Fresh veggies (this time I added a sweet potato, zucchini, green beans and bell pepper but garlic, corn, broccoli and potatoes are also good)
6 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups carrots, thinly sliced 
1 10-ounce package frozen peas
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 box chicken stock 

Chilling time 2 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For Pastry: combine flour, butter and cream cheese in food processor (I used my Kitchen Aid dough hook). Pulse on/off several times to form coarse crumbs. Add egg and process until dough forms a ball. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Pasty dough may be made up to three days in advance and kept in the refrigerator, or it may be frozen until ready to use.)

For Filling: In a large saucepan, melt butter, add onion, celery and carrots (and any other veggies you're throwing in). Saute over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add flour, salt and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring constantly to make a roux. Slowly pour in chicken stock, stirring to make a smooth gravy. Cook until thickened, about 8 minutes. Add chicken, peas and thyme. Cook another 5 minutes or so. Pour into a deep pie dish or round casserole, about 9 inches in diameter.

On a lightly floured board, roll pastry into a 10-inch round. Using a decorative cookie cutter, cut a shape from the center of pastry round. Lay pastry over the filling, fold edges under and crimp firmly against rim of dish. For decoration, moisten the bottom of the pastry cut-out and place it next to space from which it was cut.

Place pie on a baking dish sheet and bake on the lowest rack of preheated oven for 45 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before serving.

{Guest Post} Beachy Peach Pie with Rosemary Sugar

Kirsten, our favorite cocktail queen, shares her first pie making experience:

First of all, I admit I had never made a pie before this month. Give me a crumble, a crisp, a cobbler, no problem. But pie has always intimidated me, even though I will take a fruit pie over cake any day. (See Exhibit A: the pie bar instead of cake at our wedding).

Recently my husband and I went to the Oregon coast to join my parents for a long weekend. After spotting these gorgeous, organic peaches it seemed like they were meant to become a star ingredient in a pie. It also didn’t hurt that my mom was around to help, so I decided to brave it and attempt a peach pie, working from a Martha Stewart recipe my mom recommended.

I tweaked the recipe slightly (sorry Marth!) to incorporate an herbal element. I love the combo of fruit and herbs in cocktails, so I figured why not try it in a pie? And I can't resist a good crumble topping—with this recipe you get the best of both worlds, pie crust plus an amazing buttery and brown sugar topping. 

Rosemary sugar with a bit of lemon zest

We enjoyed our pie out on the deck followed by some prosecco, but this cocktail would also be delish (and use up any leftover ingredients!).

Beachy Peach Pie with Rosemary Sugar (adapted from Martha Stewart’s Fruit Pie with Crumble Topping recipe)

 

Pie Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling dough
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoons ice water, plus 2 more, if needed

Crumble Topping

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup light-brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Pie Filling

• 5 cups peach slices (about 4-5 large peaches)
• ½ cup granulated sugar (I used less than Martha’s recipe, adjust as needed based on tartness of fruit)
• 3 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
• Zest of one lemon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, and sugar several times to combine. Add butter. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with just a few pea-size pieces remaining. (We didn’t have a food processor at the cabin, so we used a fork and it worked just fine).
2. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed with fingers (if needed, add up to 2 tablespoons more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time).
3. Turn dough out onto a work surface; form dough into a 3/4-inch-thick disk. Wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
4. Before baking, unwrap dough; place on a large piece of floured waxed paper. Roll dough to a 14-inch round. Using paper, lift and wrap dough around rolling pin (discarding paper); carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate. Gently fit into bottom and up sides of plate.

   

   
   

   My mom “helping.” I swear I did some of the work.

5. Trim overhang to 1 inch; fold overhang under itself. Pinch between thumb and forefinger to make a uniform edge around the rim. Crimp edge; refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.
6. For crumb topping: mix all dry ingredients. Cut chilled butter into pieces. With your hands, work in butter pieces, until large clumps form.
7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine sugar with lemon zest, rosemary and salt and add to fruit. Add to fruit mixture 3 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Pour into pie shell; sprinkle with Crumb Topping.
8. Place on foil-lined baking sheet in lower third of oven; reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake until fruit bubbles and crust browns, 1 1/2 hours. If topping begins to brown too quickly, tent with foil.