"Top Of The Morning To Ya" Peach Pies

Okay, so these are really a variation of a theme, but I really enjoyed the stenciled Conversation Heart Cherry Pies and thought it would be cute to make a St. Patrick's Day version.  The fundraiser on St. Patrick's Day I'm donating  sweets to is coming up and these will be a fun addition to cupcakes, cookies, and brownies I'm planning to bake. Since I already had the Celtic Stencils on hand from sugar cookies I made a few months ago, all I needed was:

•  pie crust dough
•  a cookie cutter 
•  peach filling 
• edible food powder 
• a food paintbrush.

Stenciling is pretty simple.  You just need to be very careful when lifting the stencil in such a way you prevent the colored powder from spreading itself outside of the design.  While I had no problems while stenciling cookies, for some reason the pie crust was more challenging.  I don't have an explanation for this, I'm just making note of it.  Some of them got really messy with spatters of green powder and I couldn't use them.  To see the step-by-step process of putting together these pies, please click here for the details.  

In keeping with St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to use the colors found in the flag of Ireland: green, white, and orange.  Green would be represented by the stencil color, white by the crust, and orange by the peach filling.  I experimented with two colors of powder, dark green and light pearl green:

Sealed them up and placed them in the oven:

They cooked up nicely, but I thought the light green (top pie) was too light and the dark green (2 middle pies) were too dark, so I mixed the two and came up with a dark-ish sparkly green (bottom 2 pies) that I was happy with:

Did I mention I love peach pie?  Well, I love all fruit pies, actually:

I love how quickly these little pies bake up.  The prep time is minimal, especially if you don't stencil and, instead, sprinkle powdered sugar on them after they've cooled.  Also, they are wonderfully portable.  My friend Amy was visiting me from Buffalo this past weekend and I gave her a few for the plane ride home.  She suggested adding some coarse to the top crust before baking.  I think that's a fantastic idea and I'll definitely do that for the bake sale!

"Conversation Hearts" Cherry Pies with Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

I've absolutely loved the adorable individual heart cherry pies I've been seeing on blogs and Pinterest.  I knew I wanted to give baking them a try and was excited when I remembered the conversation heart stencils I bought a few months ago.  How cute would conversation heart cherry pies be?  Pretty cute, as it turns out!

I began by making cherry pie filling.  I feel awful about this, but it was my first time making pie filling outside of  pie and I'm not 100% sure of the measurements I used because I kept adding things - a bit more cornstarch, a little more sugar, a few more cherries.  I can tell you how I started and how you can begin and tweak things to reach the consistency you want.  I learned an important lesson along the way, too, about cornstarch.  Did you know that it will NOT dissolve in hot liquid, instead it will clump in little bits?  You did?  Most of my friends knew that, too.  Me?  I learned the hard way.  Here's what happened:

I started with 2 - 24oz. jars of pitted sour cherries.  I strained them reserving the juice, setting the cherries aside.  I measured a cup and a half of the juice and poured it into a small sauce pan along with 1 cup of sugar.  After bringing it to a boil, I added 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.  It thickened nicely, but I could not get rid of the cornstarch clumps.  I dumped it out and started again.  Cherry juice, sugar, and this time I heated up a splash of water in the microwave adding the cornstarch to it.  I waited for it to dissolve in the hot water.  Nope.  Clumps.  I did not add it to the juice and sugar mixture.  I just stirred and thought about what I could do.  I did not have pectin and didn't want to go to the store.  I wanted to come to an understanding about cornstarch.  I'm not sure why I didn't just Google the answer, but eventually I had the bright idea to try and dissolve the cornstarch in room temperature water.  VOILA!  Completely dissolved.

So, here's where we are at (a.k.a. How to begin the process of making Cherry Pie Filling): 

1 1/2 cups of sour cherry juice

1 cup cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in room temperature water

Bring to a boil and let thicken.  Add 1 1/2 cups of cherries.  Let simmer until thick enough to spoon onto pie crust without making a mess.  Real scientific, huh?

I tasted the filling and found it was still too sour.  So added more sugar.  1/3 cup.  And then a little more until I thought it was sweet enough.  However, this made the filling much runnier.  So, I had to add more cornstarch to thicken it, without using too much water to dissolve it so it wouldn't make it thinner while trying to thicken it.  Are you following all of this?  This is the point where I lost the measurements since I was adding amounts at random.  So, I suggest one of two things:

1. Relax and experiment, you're only making pie filling and not  performing surgery.

2.  Just buy some canned stuff.

Either way, the pies will be cute and delicious!  Here's my finished filling (verys tasty, too!):

Conversation Cherry Pie Hearts

1 can of cherry (or other) pie filling (or homemade filling)

pie crust dough, homemade or store bought

edible color dust in pink and red

powdered sugar to dust pies, if desired

To assemble the pies, either make your own favorite crust or buy pre-made ones (I bought crust.  I admit it).  Roll out the dough and cut out heart shapes.  You will need two hearts for each pie.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  On the top heart, use a small craft paintbrush to brush edible color dust over a stencil placed on top of the dough., You can see this technique by clicking here.  You can buy the color dust at craft stores such as Michael's or online.

Gently lift the stencil off of the dough:

Next, place a spoonful or so of filling on the bottom heart:

After running your fingertips through water, trace around the edge of the heart with filling on it, making sure it's wet enough to create a seal after placing the top heart over it.  Press firmly around the perimeter of the heart:

To complete the process, use a fork and pressing the tines around the heart.  Lastly, use a toothpick to poke a few holes in the pie crust.

Now they are ready for baking!  I followed the instructions, preheating my oven to 425 for baking for 15 minutes, but it didn't work out:

So, I tried again baking for less time (10 minutes) and keeping an eye on them, ready to remove the pies from the oven at the first sign of light browning:

Yay!!  Exactly everything I hoped for *sigh*.  I don't mean to be dramatic, but it was a long morning of trial and error for something I thought should be pretty easy.  Don't let me scare you away from trying these.  They are easy.  Really!  My husband loved them and I did, too.  :)  

Sprinkling some powdered sugar on them makes them even sweeter, though I haven't found a way to do it in an aesthetically pleasing way with the stenciling.  I'll work on it.  In the meantime, Valentine's Day is next week and these are a pretty quick and delicious way to let someone know you love them!

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Things that make you say MMMMMM....Mondays

Champagne Bellini - A Cupcake for the Adults!

One of my friends has been asking me to try baking a champagne cupcake.  I am not terribly fond of the bubbly, but I was curious to find out what a cupcake based on alcohol would taste like.  That's when I thought of adding the peach flavor.  I do love Bellinis!  I thought I was so smart thinking up this combination for a cupcake.  However, as it turns out, it's been done before.  In fact, I've discovered through Google that most cocktail drinks have a cupcake counterpart!  Fortunately, in the baking world there's room for everyone's experiments, and so here is my try at a Bellini Cupcake with Peach Filling topped with Champagne Buttercream Icing.

Champagne Cupcakes

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 egg whites

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup champagne

1/2 cup peach nectar

Preheat oven to 350.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.  In a separate bowl, mix together champagne and nectar, set aside, also.  Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy (about 3-5 minutes).  On medium speed add half of flour mixture, then liquid, then the rest of the flour.  Beat on high speed for a minute or so until batter is smooth.  Fill cupcake liners approximately 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.  While cupcakes are baking and cooling, begin making the peach filling.

Peach Filling

2 15 oz cans of Peaches in 100% juice

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon sugar

In a skillet, melt butter.  Drain can of peaches and add them to the butter.  Add sugar and cook until peaches have broken down and mixture thickens and becomes a filling type consistency.  Let cool completely before filling the cupcakes.  

After filling and cupcakes have completely cooled, use a knife to cut a small, circular hole in the middle of the cupcakes.  Remove circular section.  You will not need these bits, so feel free to "taste test"  them!  Spoon peach filling into the hole.

Champagne Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter at barely room temperature

4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

1/4 cup champagne

2 tablespoons peach nectar

Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy.  Add three cups of the sugar one at a time and beat until fully incorporated with butter.  Begin on low speed (so the sugar won't fly everywhere) and work up to medium.  Add champagne and peach nectar along with last cup of sugar.  Beat until smooth.  If you'd like your icing a bit thinner, add more peach nectar.  If you'd like it thicker, use less.

Fill a pastry bag with the buttercream icing and pipe onto cupcake.  Garnish with a cherry if you'd like!

Wow, are these amazing cupcakes!  The champagne flavor is sweet and light and the cake has a nice texture.  This is a DELICOUS grown-up treat I think you'll enjoy.  Give them a try!

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Sensational Strawberry Filled Cupcakes

My next pink treat for Breast Cancer Awareness week is strawberry filled strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing.  These are SO good I actually ate two in a row.  If you like strawberry, these are for you!

First, I mixed up a boxed strawberry cake.  In this instance, I prefer boxed cake to homemade.  I have yet to find a satisfyingly strawberry homemade cake recipe.  I have one more marked on my list to try...I'll get back to you on that!

After baking the cupcakes, I began the filling process.  I looked up all kinds of filling recipes, which I will experiment with more, but this time I used strawberry jam.  I was very, very happy with it as a cupcake filling.  To create space for the jam, I used a cupcake corer, which is a tool specifically designed for this job. 

As illustrated with the photo, you place the corer on the top center of the cupcake, push down, twist, and remove.  The idea is to take the "cored" part of the cupcake and use the top portion to cap the filled area of the cupcake.  Easy enough.  However, I found that the remains of the cupcake core were a bit of a mess and there was no intelligble cap left to add onto the cupcake.

Next, I filled the cavity with jam using a spoon.  Since I had no solid cap to cover the cupcake I improvised by packing some crumbs over the jam.

As an experiment, I also tried using a knife to core the cupcake.  This yielded much better results.  I cut a circle out of the middle of the cupcake - careful not to to go all the way to the bottom - and had a solid cupcake cap to top the filling.  This worked much better.

Really, I'm not sure it make a difference what method you use, or even if it's necessary to cap the cupcake at all, as it will all be smothered with icing anyway.  The only problem I foresee with the corer is having to constantly clean it between cupcakes.  I stuck with the knife method.

Once I completed the filling process, I piped buttercream frosting onto to each cupcake and added some pink cake sparkles.  Then I tried one.  And then another.  I could have eaten a third, but I do have some self restraint!  Filling cupcakes it a very easy process and you should give it a try.  I am going to have fun with new combinations of flavors.  Enjoy!

Heshey Kiss "Cutie Pies" and Cherry Pie Poppers

Hershey Kiss "Cutie Pies"

This past week I had quite a few requests to bake for different events.  Since I had actual orders to fill (and they were all items I had baked before so I didn't photograph them), I didn't have a lot of spare time to try new recipes.  On Friday, however, I had a few hours to experiment while waiting for a cake to cool.  Again, not a lot of time available, so it had to be something quick and easy.

I recalled a recipe for Hershey Kiss mini-pies I happened upon awhile ago, which fit the bill.  All that's needed is rolled out pie crust dough (either pre-made or homemade), Hershey Kisses, an egg wash (egg white whisked with a bit of water added), sugar, and some melted chocolate (if desired).  What could be simpler?

I began by unrolling out one of the pie crusts (take the dough out of the refrigerator ahead of time so it's room temperature) onto a floured surface.  Next, I unwrapped some Hershey Kisses and placed them on the dough.  I used a set of graduated circle cookie cutters, but you can just as easily use a knife to cut a circle around the Kiss.

Be sure the circle is large enough to wrap around the Kiss.  At first I cut out a circle that was a bit too small, making it difficult to wrap the dough around the top of the Kiss.  As I continued, I  cut out the circles using the next cutter size up.

To fold the dough over the Kiss bring the top and bottom part of the circle together over the top of the Kiss and seal it by pressing the dough together.  Then, do the same with the sides of the dough folded over the Kiss and sealed tightly.

After you have used up all of the pie crust dough (I re-rolled the scraps and continued making pie crust circles).  Brush some egg wash over the crust and sprinkle with granulated sugar, if desired.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes.

You can sprinkle confectioners sugar on top for some extra sweetness.  I did not, and after tasting one right out of the oven, I was not impressed.  The Kiss did not melt into gooey chocolate and, in my opinion, there was too much crust.  They weren't terrible, just not quite my taste.  Perhaps with some sugar added to the crust I would have preferred them.

I believed some improvement could be made, however, so I decided to melt a few chocolate wafers and drizzle the chocolate over the mini pies.  I was much happier with them!  Again, they are not overly sweet and chocolatey, but in some instances they can be the perfect thing to serve, such as an afternoon snack with coffee or tea.

I just love the Hershey Kiss shape in the middle when you bite into it.  So cute!!

UPDATE:  I changed my mind.  I tried one today with some tea and I actually loved it!!

Cherry Pie Poppers

I found myself with little more time and one more pie crust to use.  I didn't want to make any more Hershey Kiss mini-pies and I had a can of cherry pastry filling (which, looked essentially to be cherry pie filling with the cherries cut up into bits) in my pantry, so I decided to give cherry pie poppers a try.

I used two different sizes of circle cutters to make the pie crust dough circles - a larger one for the pie shell, and a smaller one to top the pie popper.  As with the Hershey Kiss pie, you can also use a knife to cut circles out.  Continue rolling out and cutting the dough scraps until you've used it all.  With one circle of pie crust I was able to make 12 pie poppers (using a mini-muffin baking pan).

I lined the mini-muffin pan with the crust circles and then spooned the pastry filling into them.

Next, I took the smaller circle of dough to cover the shell and filling.  Pinch the dough together to close the seam between the shell and the cover, just as you would with a full sized pie.

After each pie popper is covered and pinched together, use a knife to slash a line through the top of the pie popper crust:

Brush each pie popper with egg wash:

And bake for 19-20 minutes (or until golden brown) at 350 degrees.

Oh, they looked and SMELLED so delicious!!  I couldn't wait to try one, and they did not disappoint.  Another thing I love about these poppers is the portion control.  For me, two were quite satisfying, rather than eating an entire slice of pie.  This is good for those of us who are self-control challenged.

Obviously, I could use some work on pinching together seams, since these split.  Then again, I like the bit of color peaking through.  If I were wrapping these in treat bags the overflow would be a problem.  I suppose it will be a case-by-case decision!   Overall, I am very happy with them and can't wait for an opportunity to bake them again.

Some improvements for the next time:  I will add more filling to the pie crust shells.  This was my first time making these and I wasn't following a recipe or instructions, just kind of winging it.  I didn't know how much filling a pie popper would hold.  I could have used more.  Also, I think the placing of a bit of butter under the top crust (as I do with full sized cherry pies) will achieve a nice, buttery crust taste.  Lastly, in the future I will not be using canned cherry filling.  I much prefer my homemade sour cherry pie filling and will make that instead.

As for using pre-made pie crust, well, I am intimidated by making it from scratch.  I have been using pre-made pie crusts and that has worked out fine.  Since I've started to experiment with baking processes more, I think it's time to give pie crust a try.  My friend Karla promises me a tutorial, since she is known to be "pie crust Queen."  We'll see how that goes!

I'm excited to make these pie poppers in additional flavors, such as blueberry, pumpkin, chocolate, etc.  I'm so happy pie season is here!!!  Are you?

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