In Miniature

I may perhaps be a little out of place, as I don't live in Seattle, and it's been months since I prepared anything more involved than cereal. I have an excuse, though, as I'm still in school and spend the vast majority of my time in the library basement, unlike these layabouts who have nothing better to do than flambe things. Not that flambeing is not wonderful, last year I had an excuse to caramelize a ramp leaf with a kitchen torch, and it was one of the greatest moments of my life.

I did have lots of time last summer, though, being menially employed, and that meant lots of time in my friend's kitchen with improbable baking projects. The major discovery of the summer was the jar pie. They were a bit of a thing on baking blogs, and -loving pie and agreeing that everything is better in miniature- we had to make them. I think Not Martha figured the technique out best, and between her and Cook's Illustrated, it went swimmingly.

First, you need jars. We actually used jar-like short drinking glasses that we knew were oven safe, but if you actually want to store these (because you can just screw on the lid and stick them in the freezer, if you want, which is wonderful) you need straight sided jelly jars, NOT the kind that narrow at the top.

Next, you know that rule about not touching pie crust with your hands? Forget it. When you're putting pie crust in a jar, and trying to get it reasonably even, you're bound to be poking at it and smoothing it constantly. It probably shows, but we didn't even roll out the bottom crusts, and just pressed them in instead. We still managed to have perfectly flaky pie crusts, though, because we used the Cook's Illustrated Foolproof Pie Dough recipe, which is the only one you'll ever need. The trick is that it uses vodka instead of part of the water, which moistens the dough to hold it together without interacting with the flour to create the gluten that makes pie crust tough. Or something. The vodka evaporates in the oven, but we both have a tendency to eat the pie dough and discovered that it will, in fact, get you a bit loopy.

{+} Foolproof Pie Dough

Foolproof Pie Dough
Cooks Illustrated, November 2007

Makes enough for one 9-inch double-crust pie

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into small bits
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Next, it is important to consider that there's a much larger crust to filling ratio in such a small pie, and you need a filling that will stand up to that. One of the blogs I saw had used apples, but I think that would be an unfortunate choice; it would just be bland and uninspiring. We did cherry, also with the Cook's Illustrated recipe, and it was delicious. I think any other kind of berry would also be wonderful, or possibly peach, if you happen to have particularly good ones. There's also less room for juice in a tiny pie like this, so we used a full 4 tbs of tapioca to thicken it.

{+} Cherry Pie Filling

Cherry Pie Filling
Cook's Illustrated, July 1995

6	cups sweet cherries (pitted), or 6 cups pitted frozen cherries
3/4	cup granulated sugar
1	small lemon , zested to yield 1 teaspoon zest and juiced to yield 2 teaspoons juice
1/8	teaspoon ground allspice
1/8	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8	teaspoon almond extract
1	tablespoon brandy
3–4	tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

Toss all ingredients together, and let stand for 15 minutes before filling the pie

Make sure to leave some space from the top when filling them, so you can put the top crust on, cut vents in the top, and don't let them all fall on the floor from your slippery baking sheet when you take them out. We baked ours at about 375 until the bottoms had browned a little bit. How long depends on whether or not you froze them beforehand, just keep an eye on the first one.

I'm excited to try these again this summer, once I have liberated myself from the library. I'm thinking marionberry, blueberry, and maybe a version of that really excellent lemonade-peach pie with a crumb topping I made a while ago. Obviously, the field of tiny pies is ripe for research.