Food

10 BEAUTIFUL PIES FOR PI DAY & ANY DAY

Courtesy of From My Impossibly Tiny Kitchen. Mini Apple Rose Pies.

This week, we will be celebrating a very special Pi Day. Because it falls on 03.14.15 (Saturday), it is the most accurate Pi Day of the century! In honor of this rare occasion, we are sharing some rare treats with you today -- some positively gorgeous pies! Enjoy!

MINI APPLE ROSE PIES

These Mini Apple Rose Pies, by Holly D. of From My Impossibly Tiny Kitchen, look like voluptuous old-fashioned roses, with very thin slices of apple curled around each other and set on edge to form the blossom petals.

Mini Apple Rose Pies

Ingredients:

For the pie dough:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar (see note below)
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, very cold and cut into 1/2" cubes
3 tbsp ice cold water

For the filling:

2 apples (Pink Lady, Braeburn, Honeycrisp etc)
1/2 cup brown sugar (see note below)
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup strawberry preserves

Directions:

For the dough:

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Stir to combine. Add in the cubed butter. Work the butter into the flour using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your fingertips until the mixture looks like a coarse meal and there are no pieces of butter larger than the size of a pea. Add in ice water and stir to combine. The mixture should just come together into a ball, add additional ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if dough seems dry.
Form the dough into a disc, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour.
On a well floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4" thick. Use a biscuit cutter, a cup or a bowl about 3 1/2-4" in diameter and cut out rounds of dough. Fit each round into the cup of a buttered muffin tin, pushing the dough up the sides. Chill dough while the filling is prepped.

For the filling:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
To cut the apples and remove the core, place the apple upright and make a cut about 1/8" from the center of the apple - basically making straight cuts around the core. Repeat on the remaining sides, you should have 2 large pieces, 2 small pieces and the core.
Using a mandolin or a very sharp knife, cut the apples very thinly into half moons. Toss the apples with the lemon juice. Melt 2 tbsp of butter and combine with 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Pour mixture over the apples along with lemon juice and toss to combine. Microwave apples for about 1 minute, until soft and pliable enough to roll.
Melt the remaining 2 tbsp of butter and combine with remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Brush the bottom of each dough cup with the mixture.
To form the roses, place about 10 slices of apples on a flat surface, laying them out horizontally and consistently with the skin side facing you. Place each slice so it overlaps the previous slice by half. Begin tightly rolling the apples from one end to the other. Once you've got the basic rose shape, pick up the apples and add any additional apple "petals" around the outside, depending on how large you want the rose to be. I used about 12-18 slices per rose.
Put an apple rose in each cup of the muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes at 375F until crust is golden and apples are cooked through.
Warm the strawberry preserves in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Brush preserves over each apple rose to glaze.

ROSE APPLE PIE WITH BANANA CUSTARD & DULCE DE LECHE

Here’s another variation on Rose Apple Pie. Here the tender apple “petals” are nestled atop a silky banana custard, with a dulce de leche glaze. We couldn’t find the BoxmakersWife’s recipe posted, but if you write to her on Reddit, and ask her very, very sweetly, perhaps she’ll share with all of us??? ;)

HAND RAISED HOT WATER CRUST SCOTCH PIES

We love pies for dinner too, not just dessert. Here’s a beautiful little recipe from the Flower Pot Kitchen for Scotch Pies, made with a super flavorful lamb mince and a crispy flaky hot water crust.

Gorgeous melt in the mouth crispy juicy lamb filled pies of wonderfulness.

Hand Raised Hot Water Crust Scotch Pies

Ingredients:

(makes 10 small pies)

(2-3 per person)

For the Pie Filling:

500g organic lean minced lamb
1 onion fine fine diced
Good pinch of sea salt
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
15ml worcestershire sauce or tsp of umami paste
100ml lamb stock

For the Pie:

450g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg organic beaten
1 tbsp icing sugar
200ml water
175g lard

Directions:

Very simple place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well together, leave to one side while you make your hot water crust.
Raising the hot water crust pastry up around my wooden dolly to form the pie mould.
Mix the flour with the salt and icing sugar, pour over the beaten egg and cut into the flour, heat the water and lard to just a boiling roll and pour over the flour and mix in well, use immediately to mould your pastry tins or over your dolly or the base of a jam jar, the more the pastry cools the firmer it is to mould, and it will also start to crack.
To make the tops for the pies roll some pastry into a small golf ball size and with the end of the dolly, rolling pin or jam jar just press down to create a circle.
Once all the pastry case bases are made fill them with the minced lamb, egg wash the rim's, add the pastry lid and crimp or press the edges together, then in the centre of each pie form a hole to allow the steam to escape, finish off with a egg wash over the top and bake 190 degrees for approx 35 minutes until the pastry is crisp.

EMPANADA GALLEGA

Empanada Gallega, or Spanish Tuna Pies are like a cross between a Mediterranean tuna baguette and traditional British meat pies. Stuffed with oil-cured tuna, roasted red peppers, tomatoes and chopped hard-cooked egg, surrounded by circular discs of flaky crust, these are spectacular savory bites. This beautiful recipe and photo were created by Claudia Rinaldi Spartera, of Gourmet Project.

Empanada Gallega

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

2.5 cups of 00 flour
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder

For the Filling:

4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
6 eggs
2 red peppers
2 shallots or 1 big red onion
4 medium tomatoes
500 gr of olive oil tuna

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Work the dough ingredients (with your hands or with your robot) until it forms a ball that collects all the flour from the walls of the bowl.
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan, add the diced vegetables and cook for about 20 minutes, until their juices evaporate almost completely.
Peel and dice eggs. Add them to the red pepper.
Crumble the tuna with your hands and add it to the rest of the ingredients. Mix well, taste and salt to taste.
Grease a muffin/cupcake pan with olive oil.
Form a small dough ball with your hands (more or less big as the diameter of the cavities in your muffin pan), then crush it between the palms of your hand.
Place this disk on the bottom of each muffin pan cavity and work it with your hands to make it adhere to the walls.
Place a spoonful of filling inside the pie. Form another dough disk and place it on top, trying to close the edges and making it adhere to the walls to keep filling inside of the pie.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.
Now let’s see if you resist from rewarding yourself with a tasty, savory party pie!

CHRISTINE MCCONNELL

Photographer Christine McConnell likes to bake, likes to dress up, has a penchant for high drama, and has a fantastical sense of design.

She creates beautiful, if dark and kitschy, worlds, that lean a bit Tim Burton and David Lynch.

Her gorgeous apple pie with crushed pecans and salted caramel in the shape of a Tim Burton-style tree won “Most Beautiful” prize in the Beverly Hills Farmers Market pie contest.

LEMON CHESS PIE WITH CANDIED BLOOD ORANGES

This bright sunny Lemon Chess Pie with Candied Blood Oranges, from Put on Your Cake Pants, is a perfect pie for Pi Day, since it sports lots of circles from orange slices splayed out across its top. And it’s perfect for this time of year, when citrus is still peaking and the faintest signs of impending Springtime and giving us hope.

Lemon Chess Pie with Candied Blood Oranges

Ingredients:

For the pie dough:

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
7.5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup chilled vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 tablespoons vodka
2 1/2 tablespoons water

For the custard filling:

zest of 1 lemon
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, melted
5 eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
7 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons orange juice (I used juice from a blood orange, but any kind will do)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the candied blood oranges:

2 blood oranges
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar

Directions:

For the pie dough:

Place salt, sugar, and 1 cup of flour in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until combined, about 5 seconds. Pulse until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, about ten seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add remaining flour and pulse until incorporated, about 5 seconds.
Place the contents of the food processor in a large bowl. Pour vodka and water over the mixture, and with a rubber spatula, mix until dough is smooth and slightly sticky. With your hands, form the dough into a disk about 1-inch thick. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. On a well-floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a circle with a 12-inch diameter, about 1/8th of an inch thick. To transfer to the pie plate, gently and loosely roll the dough back around the rolling pin. After fitting the dough into the pie plate, trim the excess dough so that there is no more than 1/2 inch beyond the rim. Fold remaining excess underneath. Use a fork to flatten and crimp the edges.
For a braided crust, roll out remaining excess dough into a long rectangle. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into strips about 1/2-inch wide. Braid strips and place on top of the pie plate rim.
Weight down the dough with pie weights or washed pennies. Bake for 15 minutes. Once cool enough to touch, remove the pie weights.

For the custard filling:

Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine lemon zest, sugar, cornmeal, flour, and salt. Stir in melted butter, and once combined, add eggs, stirring to incorporate fully between each egg. Stir vigorously until mixture is homogenous and light-colored in appearance.
Stir in heavy cream, lemon and orange juices, and vanilla extract.
Pour the filling into the pie crust – be careful not to overfill it. If you have extra filling, you can bake it in a separate pie plate (I added some frozen cranberries to the leftover filling and made a decently-sized custard). Place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes. The pie is done baking when the center is slightly puffed-up and faintly golden. Don’t worry if the custard is still slightly wiggly – it will set more as it cools. Set aside to cool.

For the candied blood oranges:

Once the pie has cooled, prepare the candied blood oranges to place on top: wash and dry the blood oranges, and cut into thin slices, cutting so that the cross-section of the segments is visible.
In a wide saucepan or skillet, heat water and sugar on medium heat until all the sugar granules have dissolved. Add orange slices in a single layer (without any overlapping) and simmer for 10 minutes. Flip the slices over and simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
Once slightly cooled, layer orange slices on top of the pie. Optional: you can use a sharp knife to trim the rinds off the orange slices before placing them on the pie. The rinds are slightly bitter, but certainly still edible. I found the slices to be more fragile with the rinds removed, so I left them intact.

SWEET CHERRY PIE

This Sweet Cherry Pie, by Stephanie of Lazy Smurf, is as pretty as it is delicious. Adapted from a combination of recipes from both Smitten Kitchen and Vegan Pie in the Sky, it’s made with fresh sweet cherries and a touch of love. We changed it up a bit and made it with sour cherries, which we prefer. You can also opt to reduce the amount of sugar and increase the amount of fresh lemon juice for a more tart taste.

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY PIE

This gorgeous Chocolate Raspberry Pie, by Posie Harwood, of one of our favorite blogs. Food52, is a classic combination of raspberries and chocolate, but with the added soft mellow flavors of coconut milk. The graham cracker crust makes this pie a piece of cake to make. Check out the recipe here.

BLUSHING APPLE PIE

Did you know you could make an apple pie blush? Maria Siriano of Sift and Whisk, figured out how to do it with roasted beet puree, so it boosts the nutritional value of your pie as well.

Siriano adds floral cardamom, Angostura bitters, and vanilla paste for a beautiful multi-layered flavor note. And she favors a lard and butter crust for maximum tenderness and flake.

Check out the beautiful Blushing Apple Pie recipe here.

I LIKE PIE

With flavors like Apple Caramel Crunch, Sweet Potato Pineapple Cream Cheese, Creamsicle, and Chocolate Chess, I Like Pie Bake Shop customers can’t help but like love their pies. They even decorate them beautifully.

This sweet little pie shop in Claremont, California, also offers pie-baking classes so you can try your own hand at pie. Or -- you may just ask them to ship their Pie-of-the-Month to you to make it nice and easy.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

Photo: Courtesy of From My Impossibly Tiny Kitchen. Mini Apple Rose Pies.
Photo: Courtesy of From My Impossibly Tiny Kitchen. Mini Apple Rose Pies.
Photo: Courtesy of BoxmakersWife. Apple Rose Pie with Banana Custard and Dulce de Leche.
Photo : Courtesy of Flower Pot Kitchen. Hand Raised Hot Water Crust Scotch Pies.
Photo: Courtesy of Gourmet Project. Empanada Gallega: Tuna Spanish Pies.
Photo by Christine McConnell. Apple Pie with Crushed Pecans and Salted Caramel.
Photo: Courtesy of Put on Your Cake Pants. Lemon Chess Pie and Candied Blood Oranges.
Photo: Courtesy of Lazy Smurf. Sweet Cherry Pie. Recipe Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.
Photo by Posie Harwood. Chocolate Raspberry Pie.
Photo by Maria Siriano. Blushing Apple Pie.
Photo: Courtesy of I Like Pie Bake Shop. Raspberry Pie.
Photo: Courtesy of I Like Pie Bake Shop.
Photo: Courtesy of Lazy Smurf. Sweet Cherry Pie. Recipe Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.