Circle B Kitchen
Yield: 12 5" fruit pies
I used my homemade pastry dough for this, so I’m not exactly sure how many pies you might be able to get out of a store-bought crust. I made enough pie dough for 2 9” pies and then divided the dough into quarters. I then rolled each quarter into a 14” circle and was able to cut 3 pies out of each, totaling 12 little pies. If using store-bought pie dough, I would roll each pie crust a little thinner and then get as many little rounds out of each as I could. I used a jar of sour cherries I had in the pantry, but frozen or canned cherries would work just as well. To make this even easier, you could buy already made pie fillings and just assemble and bake.
Ingredients
Enough pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie (see head note)
Cherry pie filling (see recipe below)
Lemon pie filling (see recipe below)
Powdered sugar glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 ½ to 2 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon vanilla
Make the pie fillings (see recipes below) and set aside
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Working with ¼ of the dough at a time, roll it out to a 12 to 14-inch circle. Place a 4 to 5-inch cutter (I used a ramekin that was 4.75” diameter) on the dough and run a sharp knife around the perimeter of the cutter. You should be able to cut 3 rounds out of each quarter of the pastry dough.
Place 2-3 tablespoons of filling in the center of each round. Dip your finger in a little water and moisten the edges of the dough. Fold in half to form a crescent. Dip a fork in flour and press the edges together to create a tight seal. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Cut a little slit in the top of each pie and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and place on a rack. While still warm, drizzle or brush each pie with the powdered sugar glaze and let cool.
Lemon Pie Filling
1 ¼ cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups cold water
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
½ cup fresh lemon juice
Mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt together. Pour the cold water into a saucepan. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the water with a whisk until completely combined. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
In small bowl, beat egg yolks with a fork. Stir about 1/4 cup of hot mixture into egg yolks. Gradually stir yolk mixture into hot mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.
Remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon peel and lemon juice. Cool slightly, about 15 minutes.
Cherry Pie Filling
4 cups frozen, pitted cherries (see alternate below)
3 to 4 tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup water or cherry juice
1 cup sugar
Pour the frozen cherries into the saucepan and heat over medium-high heat for five minutes, or until the juice begins to extract from the cherries.
Drain the juice from the cherries and measure. Add enough water to equal 1 cup. Pour the juice into a saucepan and set the cherries aside in a separate bowl.
Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl and add to the saucepan, mixing thoroughly with the cherry juice.
Heat the mixture, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken. Stir the cherries into the thickened juice mixture and cook for two to three minutes. (You can add a little red food coloring here if you’d like).
Remove the cherries from the heat and cool to room temperature.
* Alternately, I used sour cherries in a jar. I just drained the cherries, which gave me 1 cup of cherry juice to work with. Canned cherries would work here as well.