I hope you aren't sick of hearing about NOLA yet, I just REALLY want you to go! Last week, we drooled over the food at Cochon and then tried to recreate the Pineapple Upside Down dessert, so I thought maybe we could give it a try again. Below is my stab at the fried strawberry pies from Borgne that we spoke about earlier this week.
Heres the dealio though, PIE and FRYING sounds like a great idea, and was wonderful being served to me, and in mah belly, but I thought we could simplify this one a bit, more like weeknight dessert, something we could throw together quickly, but still have it WOW the pants off whoever gets the pleasure of devouring it, what do you think? SIMPLE and DELISH, I knew you would be on board.
These babies didn't last long in my fridge. Ok, OK, I may have eaten MOST of them, but they are TINY pies how could I not?
These can be as simple or complicated as you want to make them. I kept it basic, using pre-made pie dough, but you can use your favorite pie dough recipe, or the one I used for my Autumn PIes or Pear Pies Cookies.
Also, you don't HAVE TO make the royal icing OR add the sprinkles, but c'mon, why wouldn't you, look how lovely they are?, and adding those elements makes them Pop-Tart-esq, which is a win in my book.
So, this is alllllll up to you and what time of time restraints you have today.
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Yields 6-8 Handpies
FOR THE PIES /
1 pkg. Fresh Strawberries (need approx. 12 large strawberries)
Zest of ½ a lemon
1 pkg. Pre-Made Pie Crust - I used Pillsbury- it came with 2 rolled crusts, you will need them both!
½ cup sugar
FOR THE ROYAL ICING / optional
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 ½ tbsp. meringue powder
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup warm water
1 / Preheat oven to time instructed by the pie crust package.
2 / Clean and cut the strawberries into small pieces (that will fit in a tiny pie!).
3 / Place the cut strawberries in a medium saucepan, with the sugar and lemon zest, over low-medium heat. Cook the strawberries, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until they are soft and juicy! Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.
4 / Roll out your pie dough and cut with a cookie cutter into the desired shape- I used a 4-inch heart, which yielded 8 pies. Lay half the cut outs on a flat cookie pan.
LOOK AT 'DEM JUICY STRAWBERRYIES ALL READY TO MAKE SOME PIE!
5 / Spoon the mixture onto half of the dough cut outs...
... Top the mixture with the other dough cut outs and pinch along the edges!
(The juice will spill out, and cook, and make something like fruit leather, which I ate, so don't worry if it gets messy, it's allllll good!)
6 / Bake for the time instructed on the package or until golden brown. I baked mine for about 5 minutes longer than the package to ensure the dough on the bottom of the pie was cooked completely, and some may have been able to handle another few minutes. Allow to cool for about 3 minutes on the cookie tray, then using a spatula, move to a cooling rack.
7 / While the pies are baking, make the royal icing by mixing together the confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, vanilla and warm water.
8 / Spoon royal icing onto warm pies. Top with pretty sprinkles!
HOW EASY WAS THAT?! They were lovely, you really should try this one. Another fruit possibly? Maybe some fun shapes?! GET INTO IT! This recipe is so versatile and can be SOOOOO easy, I think you should keep this secret weapon in your back pocket, I know I will be!
How will you use this recipe to your advantage?