Savory Mini Pies - Tips, Ideas and Recipes

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Don't shoot me, but I am not in love with this toy. It takes a lot longer to make the tarts than if I used the oven and made a full-sized one. I can understand how nifty it would be for using up leftovers or making little pies for a party or a couple of people, but it takes a lot more time than making your basic 9-inch pie, however, at this time of year, it also means no turning on the oven. I also was not impressed by the quality of the crust. I used my basic recipe that is always quite flaky and very good. It didn't turn crisp (and the top of the tarts got dark if I left them in the pie maker hoping the crust would get brown). My vote--a 3 out of 5.
 
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Tarts are a tough one to start with and try to see how the piemaker works. There is a learning curve, not all of my pies come out fantastic, either. Just figuring out the pastry we like the best was a chore and there were flops.
 
It's the time it takes. I can make a full-sized pie in a lot less time. I made 8 tarts and rolled the rest for a 9-inch pie pan. I'd be making tarts all night if I did this using the piemaker. I can see it would be good for portion control or to use up bits of pastry, leftovers, but too much bother for me. I guess I'm not a big enough pie fan to fall in love with it.
 
Pies with already cooked fillings go much faster. Especially if you start with them at room temperature.
 
CWS4322 said:
It's the time it takes. I can make a full-sized pie in a lot less time. I made 8 tarts and rolled the rest for a 9-inch pie pan. I'd be making tarts all night if I did this using the piemaker. I can see it would be good for portion control or to use up bits of pastry, leftovers, but too much bother for me. I guess I'm not a big enough pie fan to fall in love with it.
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As a lover of all kitchen gadgets, I have to say the pie maker is one of my favorites. One of my favorite things is that you can make little pies out of leftovers and they are great to take for lunches. It does take some getting used to. Try experimenting with egg roll wrappers or puff pastry for different things. Or even try the buttered bread idea. The Philly cheese steak pies were one of the favorites at this house, and I just used things I had in the house when thinking of the idea. Tortillas work too. If you have someone else with you it's more fun too! Don't forget to try the sweet pies. Blueberry and Lemon are two of my favorites.
 
chopper said:
As a lover of all kitchen gadgets, I have to say the pie maker is one of my favorites. One of my favorite things is that you can make little pies out of leftovers and they are great to take for lunches. It does take some getting used to. Try experimenting with egg roll wrappers or puff pastry for different things. Or even try the buttered bread idea. The Philly cheese steak pies were one of the favorites at this house, and I just used things I had in the house when thinking of the idea. Tortillas work too. If you have someone else with you it's more fun too! Don't forget to try the sweet pies. Blueberry and Lemon are two of my favorites.
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I do a lot of things that use gadgets--I make all kinds of things that are done one at a time (tortillas, lefse, krumkake, rosettes, perogies) and have gadgets up the ying-yang. This gadget is one that I will use very often. I probably should have thought it through. I'd rather use my tart pans and make mini-pies in the oven. Or, a full-sized pie. I don't eat sweet pie very often--about 2 or 3 slices/year, so I don't make tarts or pies very often. Peach Cream Pie or Wild Blueberry.

Besides the time it took to roll out the crust, cut them, put them in the maker, fill them, bake them (7 minutes) and then repeat with the next batch, well, I figured I could roll out the rest of the crust, fill it, pop it in the oven and be done. The other issue was I was not impressed by the quality of the crust. I'm very fussy about my crusts. And, I make darned near perfect crusts every time. So, since I wasn't impressed, I thought I'd check to see if it was the pastry dough or the method used to cook it. I used the rest of the pastry dough and filling to make a 9" tart in the oven. The crust was perfect so it wasn't my crust that was the problem, it was the method used to cook it. Morale of the story, if you are fussy about your crust, you may be less than impressed by the quality of the bottom crust. I was also not impressed that the two closest to the back hinge got much darker than the ones in the front--so they did not bake evenly in the pie maker.
 
CWS4322 said:
Don't shoot me, but I am not in love with this toy. It takes a lot longer to make the tarts than if I used the oven and made a full-sized one. I can understand how nifty it would be for using up leftovers or making little pies for a party or a couple of people, but it takes a lot more time than making your basic 9-inch pie, however, at this time of year, it also means no turning on the oven. I also was not impressed by the quality of the crust. I used my basic recipe that is always quite flaky and very good. It didn't turn crisp (and the top of the tarts got dark if I left them in the pie maker hoping the crust would get brown). My vote--a 3 out of 5.
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I won't shoot ya. The first batches are tough. Your learning with a new product. So the crusts weren't to your own satisfaction. It's ok, try something else. You don't have to use it for pies. Some of the recipes I've posted had nothing to do with pie. You would have to sift through the original thread to find them, not all the recipes people have posted are here yet.

Your a good sport. My biggest complaint about it is I now have to not say a word that the pies are ready. My guys turn into Wild AMINALS!
They've had a few scrapes in the kitchen because the other ate the last pie. That was MY PIE!:ohmy:

Munky.
 
Funny CWS, I wonder why the ones in the back cooked at a different rate than the ones in the front. I haven't had that problem. I guess my biggest problem is getting them done fast enough so I actually get one.
 
jabbur said:
Okay, I've ordered a pie maker! It should be here next week. Sounds like it will be fun to try!
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Sometimes the purple Mother Ship sends it quicker than anticipated. Be prepared with your purple apron and Chef's hat! :chef:
 
Mine should arrive early next week. I'm pretty excited to make cute "Bento" pies. (Yes, PF, your bento reference is what sold me along with pictures of what has been made by others!) :w00t2:
 
Saute some mushroom and finely chopped onions in sour cream, season to taste, when ready put into mini pie add some shredded cheese on the top, bake till done.
 
Forgot to say when saute mushrooms have to start with a little bit of oil. And yes it does taste good if you are a mushroom fan. But even my wife who doesn't like mushrooms and would not normally eat them likes it, though I do chop mushrooms really finely for her, even put thru food processor sometimes and people like it.
Thank you.
 
Okay, let it not be said that I do not have an open mind. I did, after all, try kasha more than once before I declared "nope, not going to eat this stuff." I'm going to try freezing the filling to the Swiss Chard tart in "pie maker" portions. It might make it easier to make the darned things...but I'm only going to do 8 because that would be one crust and I usually make 2 crusts when I make pastry.
 
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