cup pies.

Devil stick practice hasn't happened in quite a few weeks, but yesterday we finally got together to practice.  We even broke out the Hummingbird to test our Devil Stick Drop robot script.  

We are proud to report it was a success!  Now that we have a working sensor we are going to attempt to create a program in Snap! (think Scratch, but for robots) that tracks the amount of time elapsed in between drops.

Now enough talking, on to the good stuff!

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For Christmas Grandma bought me the full-run of the short lived show, Pushing Daisies.  For the unenlightened, Pushing Daisies is a whimsical romantic comedy about everything wonderful in life: bees, cheese, and murder.  Oh, and pies!  How could I forget pies!  There's even a handsome pie maker who owns an adorable pie shaped shop called the Pie Hole!

Previously upon the advice of the pie-maker's dead-not-dead girlfriend, Chuck, I picked up some gruyère to bake into my pie crust.  I do not recommend this option at all, not unless you like foot cheese, and by extension, foot pies.  Blegh.  After coming to terms with my deep sense of betrayal, I decided to journey forth and try another of Chuck's suggestions, Cup Pies!  They are exactly as they sound: singled serving pies baked in cupcake tins!  Oh yes.


Cup Pies

Filling:

4 medium Granny Smith apples

2 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

Crust:

2 1/2 cup flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter

1+ cup Ice Water

1 egg
Sprinkling sugar

Filling Recipe:
1. Dice apples

2. In a large saucepan add apples, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.

3. Simmer on medium, stirring as needed.

4. Cook for about five minutes or until apples begin to soften.

5. Remove from heat.



Crust Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 425°

1. Cut up the butter into cubes and stick in the freezer half an hour before needed.

2. In a large mixing bowl mix together flour, sugar, and salt.  

3. Take butter cubes out of the freezer and sprinkle over the flour mixture.  Using a pastry blender or a fork work the butter into the flour.  When the butter pieces are the size of tiny peas, stop.  

4. Drizzle 1/2 cup of the ice water over the mixture and mix together using a rubber spatula. You may need to add additional water, but add it a tablespoon at a time.  The mixture shouldn't be sticky, but it shouldn't be dry either.  Once the majority of your dough is mixed together, gently kneed the rest together with your hands.  Make sure to get those extra floury bits mixed in! 

5. Divide the dough in half and place each half into a piece of plastic wrap or in a Tupperware container.  Let chill in the fridge for one to two hours.

6. Spray cupcake tin with non-stick spray.

7. Sprinkle flour onto your table.  Take the first half of the dough out of the fridge and roll it out with a rolling pin.  Try to make your dough as thin as possible, we are making crust here, not biscuits!

8.  Once it is thin enough, place a large mug upside-down onto the dough.  Press the mug into the dough until you have cut out a circular piece.  This will be the bottom pie crust.

Protip: If you're really fancy, you can opt for a biscuit cutter instead of an upside-down mug.  I am not really fancy.

9.  Gently place the circle of dough into one of the cupcake tin wells.  You may need to pull at it a bit to get it to fit properly.  There should be some dough hanging out over the edge.  This isn't necessary, but it will help when it comes time to add the top crust.

10.  Complete step nine until you have filled all of the cupcake wells.

11. Fill-er up!  Place approximately three heaping spoonfuls of filling into the pie crust.  You want full pies so it's perfectly acceptable to over-fill!

12. Take the second ball of dough out of the fridge and repeat steps 7 & 8.  These will be the tops of your cup pies.

13. Place the disc of dough onto the top of your pie.  Pinch the edges of the bottom and top crusts together.  If you'd like, you can use a fork or pinch the dough side-ways (instead of top to bottom) to create a fancier effect.

Before: Not quite edible

After: Om-nom nom

Note: You could also opt out of the full-top method and instead cut strips of dough to create a lattice-design on top of your cup pies.  Or if you have small cookie-cutters you can cut out holiday designs such as hearts or pumpkins to use as the tops of your cup pies.

14.  Using knife, cut three holes in the center of each top crust.  This will allow the heat to vent.

15. Whisk together an egg and using a pastry brush lightly coat each pie with an egg wash.  Sprinkle the tops lightly with sugar.

15.  Baking time!  Stick those babies in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

16. Enjoy! Well, let cool, then enjoy.  We don't need any burnt taste-buds.