| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Inactive: | 1 hr |
| Cook: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 24 mini pies |
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for bench and cutters
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 sticks chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 4 tablespoons ice water, plus more as needed
- 4 cups fresh pitted cherries
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- Cooking spray
- Special equipment: 1 1/2-inch and 2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutters
Instructions
- For the crust: In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter. Pulse the processor until the mixture resembles fine sand. Remove the lid and add the ice water to the mixture. Run the processor just until the mixture rolls itself into a little ball. If the mixture is a bit dry, add more ice water by the tablespoonful until it comes together. Gather the dough into a ball. With a bench scraper or knife, divide the mixture evenly in half. Shape each half into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes.
- Cook’s Note: At this point you can keep the wrapped dough in the refrigerator for a few days or freeze for later use.
- For the filling: In a saucepan, combine the pitted cherries and 1 cup water over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Using a whisk, swirl the ingredients together, making sure that there aren’t any lumps in the cornstarch. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and lemon zest to the cherries. Cook the cherry mixture until it comes to a rolling boil. Cook 1 minute more, until thickened. Allow the cherry filling to cool slightly while you prepare the crust.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a 24 cup mini muffin tin or 2 (12 cup) mini muffin tins with cooking spray.
- Roll the dough disks out into 10-inch rounds on a well-floured work surface. With a 1 1/2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter, edge lightly dipped in flour, cut 24 rounds from the first rolled out disk. With a 2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter, edge lightly dipped in flour, cut 24 rounds from the second rolled out disk. You should have a total of 24 (1 1/2-inch) rounds and 24 (2-inch) rounds for matching top and bottom crusts.
- Gently fit the 2-inch dough rounds into the bottom of the prepared mini muffin tin. Make sure to pat down the bottom and the excess coming up the sides. Spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon cooled pie filling into each crust-lined cup. Fit the top of each mini pie with a 1 1/2-inch dough round, pushing down gently and sealing the bottom crust and top crust by crimping the edges together with a fork. With a sharp paring knife, make 3 small incisions on the top crust, to allow the steam to escape.
- Bake until the edges are golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 12 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack, and then remove from the muffin tin.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 24 servings |
| Calories | 170 |
| Total Fat | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Carbohydrates | 23 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 12 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Cholesterol | 20 mg |
| Sodium | 26 mg |
Reviews
I think I will make this recipe….with a few changes. I will use my recipe from my OLD COOKBOOK I received as a wedding gift in 1966. The cherry pie filling used canned tart cherries. Also, a small amount of pure almond flavoring. I think that is what is missing when the reviewer’s made comments that something is missing. Just a thought. I have been using this recipe for many years and this cherry pie has been a family fave. Good luck!!
Pies came out pretty good, kids can’t wait to dig in after our Thanksgiving feist tonight!
Crust was flaky and tasty. Filling was great, not too sweet but just right.
For Brevity’s Sake, Let’s change a few things.Since not All Are way above the bar Bakers/Cooks try this:purchase Your favourite Pie Dough then, Use Your favourite Fruit Filling.Try not to “twist” dough when cutting out.Have enough deep muffin tins for “pies”.Then,grease inside with something besides a spray.Gently “press” tops and bottoms together after filling.try not to fill too full.Cut a “steam” hole in top of each “pie”,bake w/Parchement Paper aka,”cooking paper”underneath on a jelly roll pan.Everything Should Be Fine.Now,exhale…
These were outstanding. The crust was wonderful, flaky with a little chew. I left my cherries whole I would recommend cutting them in half. Ann made assembling the pies look effortless. It is not (that is why she is a chef but by the time I got to the 24th pie I was getting the hang of assembly. My guests gobbled them up, I will definitely make these tasty treats again.
My cousin and I(Jcreme brulee made these together. We were not entirly pleased with the filling. We made blueberry filling. It made so much that we made a whole entire pie with leftover filling. But all my tasters loved them. The crust was perfect flaky and sweet. I would make this again and will try different filling. Thank you Anne for the recipe!!! And happy cooking to all your cooks out there.
Good Luck with this recipe cooks!
The Cook L
I think this was pretty good. The crust was excellent, though I did use 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt instead of the sea salt. I think the filling needed something. I added about a teaspoon of vanilla and a pinch of salt. It was still a little flat. My husband said that I didn’t add enough filling, but I just think something was missing. Not sure what I could add. I’ll keep playing around. Last note, I had no problems rolling and cutting out the dough.
These were incredible. We made them with frozen blueberries since that was what we had on hand, and there is a very good possibility that I used too much butter. We also did an egg wash on top to help them look pretty. They were perfection. Best pie crust I have ever had in my life!
5 Stars but i made a couple of changes.
I had delicious peaches that i needed to do something with so I made this with half cherry and half peach. since peaches are juicier, i added 1/2 tsp of pectin while cooking and let it cook and evaporate longer than i probably would have with just the cherries.
This makes a LOT of filling so i just picked the fruit to put in the pie crusts.
If your cherries dont have a lot of flavor, i suggest doing what i did and making it with some other fruit witht he cherries.
About the delicious crust – the 2″ rounds didnt fill my mini-cupcake pans so i had to play with them a little. 2 1/2 would have been better. then, the 1 1/2 was a little small, too but the 2 ” was overlapped the pan a bit too much so i had to play with the 1 1/2 rounds and make them a bit bigger.
This is a keeper and great to make for parties and give to friends/neighbors/school. I will try different sweet and savory fillings.
Mmmm
I had delicious peaches that i needed to do something with so I made this with half cherry and half peach. since peaches are juicier, i added 1/2 tsp of pectin while cooking and let it cook and evaporate longer than i probably would have with just the cherries.
This makes a LOT of filling so i just picked the fruit to put in the pie crusts.
If your cherries dont have a lot of flavor, i suggest doing what i did and making it with some other fruit witht he cherries.
About the delicious crust – the 2″ rounds didnt fill my mini-cupcake pans so i had to play with them a little. 2 1/2 would have been better. then, the 1 1/2 was a little small, too but the 2 ” was overlapped the pan a bit too much so i had to play with the 1 1/2 rounds and make them a bit bigger.
This is a keeper and great to make for parties and give to friends/neighbors/school. I will try different sweet and savory fillings.
Mmmm
I saw Anne make these on tv and right away decided to make them, but i didn’t have any cherries. So i just made them with apple filling. They were the best pies I have ever had.