Mini Blueberry Pies

I finally mustered the courage to make these. I was afraid they would be tricky to assemble and I would end up wasting ingredients. I made the dough this time, sometimes I cheat and use frozen pie dough, but I really wanted to make these using a homemade crust . It doesn’t take much effort to make a homemade crust when you use a food processor, and the result will always be better than the store bought kind. The trick is not to overwork the dough. Just blend it until it is all combined and the dough is formed. Resist from mixing or kneading the dough too much, which activates the gluten in the flour and affects the texture of your baked crust. Instead of a flaky crust, you’ll have a dense one. When using butter, make sure it is cold and not at room temperature.

When I finished my dough, and I went through the assembly steps, I was glad to see they are not difficult to make at all!

I tried different designs for the top crust, and I can tell you right away you should try the lattice top to get the prettiest result. I completely covered some of them, but the blueberry juice oozed from their side and ended up looking a little messy (you’ll see in my photographs).

I will try this recipe again using different fillings, apple will probably be next. I tried to explain the procedure on the steps below, but you can pretty much get the idea just from the photographs, I promise it’s not hard to make. I also included a video of how to make a lattice top on Step 5 of the assembly procedure.

Mini Blueberry Pies

Crust Recipe from Martha Stewart
Filling Recipe adapted from Tidy Mom
Assembly tips: Adventuress Heart

Makes 6 mini pies

For Pie Crust:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Egg Wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon water

Preparation:

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.
With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.

For Pie Filling:

2 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preparation:

Gently combine berries, sugar, flour, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice in large bowl.

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 425 F.
Roll out pie dough and using either a cookie cutter mold, ramekin, a small round plate or anything round that has a diameter of 4 1/4 ” for the bottom crust and 3 1/2″ for the top crust. ( My cookie cutter was under 4″, so I kept the dough a little thicker and rolled it out after I cut it to make it larger in diameter).
Place your pie dough rounds inside the holes of your cupcake mold (you don’t need to grease the cupcake mold, the pie crust has enough butter to prevent it from sticking). Using your fingers, gently press down the sides and bottom to make sure you’re getting a proper shape.
Add the blueberry filling all the way to the top.
Roll out the remaining dough to make the tops. Use your round mold, and make any design you like. If you will use a top crust to completely cover the top, try to seal the sides properly to help the filling stay inside during baking. ( I recommend using a lattice pattern)
Once the mini pies have been assembled, brush the tops with an egg wash to create a golden and shiny finish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden in color. Start to check them on minute 25.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

For Pie Filling:

2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
1-2 Tablespoons flour (depending how juicy they are)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

10:59 AM
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- blueberry, cupcake mold, homemade, mini pies, pie crust
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Blueberry Pancakes

Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast… one of my favorite weekend treats.

This is another variation of our Best Homemade Pancake recipe. We’ve added a little bit more sugar to cut down on the acidity of the blueberries. Since we don’t have blueberries in Guatemala, the best we can do is find Dole’s frozen blueberries at Pricemart, which are the ones I used for this recipe. Before you use them, let them thaw and discard the liquid. On one occasion, I didn’t want to wait for them to thaw, and used them frozen… I got purple pancakes. So my advice is to always use defrosted berries to get the best presentation.

As far as cooking pancakes made from scratch, I have found that cooking at medium temperature ( I set it at 4) for 2 minutes on each side will result in perfect golden pancakes. Set it too high, and they will over brown. Too low, and you will get pale pancakes.

These are especially good with whipped cream, so go ahead… indulge.

Blueberry Pancakes
A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yield: 6 Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup flour
¾ cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
(if you use frozen blueberries, thaw them first)

Procedure:

In one bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix egg, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.
Make a hole in the middle of dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into it.
Whisk wet and dry ingredients until combined. Do not over mix the batter. It can have some lumps remaining.
Set the batter aside to rest for 5 minutes before cooking.
Fold in your blueberries, be careful not to mix too hard or you can burst them and will end up with purplish pancakes.
Heat the frying pan over the medium-high heat and brush it with few drops of oil or butter (you can use paper towel f you decide to use oil).
When the frying pan is hot, pour about ¼ cup of the batter onto the frying pan
Cook pancakes on one side for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.
Flip pancakes using the spatula and cook again for about 1-2 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm and with desired topping.

For these pancakes, we recomend dusting confectioner’s sugar on top.

07:39 PM
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- blueberry, Breakfast, homemade, Pancakes
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Blueberry Crumble Muffins: Our Fans Asked for Them!

On June 13th, we tweeted this simple question: “We have blueberries. What do we make: Cupcakes or Muffins? Let us know… Baking tomorrow”

By the end of the day we made a Facebook Poll, and by the next morning, the choice was made. We were baking muffins. So, I just got the butter and blueberries to room temperature and started baking. They came out wonderful! This is a keeper! I know it will be a favorite of yours too. Usually muffins are heavy and dry, but this batter makes a light and moist muffin. Their tangy flavor topped with the brown sugar crumble makes them the perfect pair.

Oh, and see those cute paper Tilt-a-Whirl Baking Cups? You can find those at Bake It Pretty. Make sure to swing by and say hi, they have great products to make your baking the cutest around!

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Recipe By Martha Stewart
Yield: Makes 24 muffins

Ingredients for the Crumble:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Ingredients for the Muffins:
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for tin
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large whole egg plus 2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries

Granulated sugar, for topping

Directions:

Make the crumb topping, whisk together flour, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour in melted butter and toss with a flexible spatula until large crumbs form. Set aside.
Now, make the muffins. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line standard two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla; mix until well combined. Reduce speed to low; alternate adding reserved flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour. Gently fold in berries by hand.
Divide batter evenly among prepared cups, then with your hands sprinkle crumb topping evenly over batter in each cup, sprinkle generously with granulated sugar.
Bake for about 30 minutes until light golden on top, rotating tins halfway through (15 minutes in). This will allow the muffins to bake evenly. Don’t worry they won’t sink!
Cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes before turning out muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.