Cupcake Pies - Best of Both Pastry Worlds

Good morning!

Yes, it's 9am and I'm baking cupcake pies. Don't judge me.

I am in love with that adorable Vegan Yum Yum blog, so I decided to make one of her sweet treats on my day off.

Delicious and tasty cupcake pies!!!

Those tiny pies are insanely yummy-looking. I don't like the idea of ground cherries (simply because they remind me of gooseberries which I don't like at all) so I decided to make black and blue cupcake pies!

Blackberries and blueberries were on sale this week! YEAH!

Dough Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 Cup Cubed, Chilled Earth Balance Margarine
2 Tbs – 1/4 Cup Ice Water

Berry Ingredients:

A bunch of your favorite berries (about 3/4 cup)

To make the dough, according to Lauren, follow this recipe:

1. Add flour, salt, sugar, and butter into a food processor.
2. Pulse until the mixture looks like wet sand, with pea-sized lumps here and there.
3. Slowly drizzle in water while running the machine until the dough forms a ball. If in doubt, add less water as opposed to more.
4. Turn out the dough onto the counter and press to form a disc. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.

I didn't have a food processor, or a pastry blender - I did things the 'rustic' (read: cheap bitch) way: two knives and a lot of slicing and turning the bowl around. Works just as well, but it takes a lot longer.

Now to the fun part!

1. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake papers. Spray lightly with oil. Place a scant tablespoon of dough into the bottom of each cup. Using a small glass dipped in water (one that has the same diameter of the bottom of the cupcake cup), press the dough to form a bottom crust.

2. Take small pieces of dough and build up the sides of the cup with dough, making sure the walls aren’t too thick.

3. Place the shells in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up.

4. Preheat the oven to 400º F. Remove the shells from the fridge and fill to the top, slightly overflowing, with ground cherries (or whatever fruit you’re using).
(Since I used blackberries and blueberries, I chopped my giant blackberries in half so they would be the same size as the blueberries!)

After this, you'll want to mix 1/4 cup of sugar with 1/2 tsp of flour. 

5. Add 1/2 to 1 tsp of the sugar/flour mixture to each cup, depending on how sweet you want your pies.

6. Cover the back of a cookie sheet with a sheet of plastic wrap. Add the rest of the pie dough, and cover with a second sheet. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4-1/8″ thick. Using a glass that has a slightly larger diameter than the openings of the cupcake cups, stamp out six pie crust tops. Place this in the freezer for a few minutes, or into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

*Note: I did not do this. I definitely just hand-flattened some piles of dough and just slapped them on top of the berries to form the top crust. I'm going to call all my lazy / cheap moves 'rustic' from now on. So this was the 'rustic' way of doing the top crust. ;)

7. Once chilled, you should be able to easily peel out the tops and place them over your pies. Pinch the edges down, slash a X in the top with a sharp knife, and sprinkle with sugar. You can do other types of tops, such as lattice work, if desired.

8. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for several minutes before gently removing them from the cupcake tin to cook completely.

RATINGS:

Deliciousness: 4/5
Perfect, buttery crust! The berries were bursting with juice and the pies were just sweet enough but not too sweet. I just kind of wish I had added some spice, like ginger or lemon zest or something. Other than that, delightful!

Prettiness: 5/5
Little baby pies!!!! SO CUTE!

Ease of Preparation: 3/5
Lots of chopping, refrigerating, waiting for things to settle down, etc. Not too difficult to get right if you just put a little work into it, though. :)