Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Easy as PiePops!






Chronicle Books was looking for another excuse to throw a party, so we had a First Floor Picnic this week. An indoor picnic complete with red checked tablecloths, sunglasses, icy beer and a pie contest.

I was looking for an excuse to make Bakerella's PiePops, and this was it.

PiePops are just what you think they are - mini pies on a stick. In the great Team Pie vs. Team Cake debate I'm solidly on Team Cake, but dang if these aren't the cutest things. And they really are easy - if you take a few short cuts....

...such a store bought pie crust.

Yes, I usually make my own and am all smug about it, but I needed a time-saver and these frozen crusts worked like a dream.

I also had some leftover charoset in the fridge. Charoset is Passover dish made of apples, nuts, wine sugar and cinnamon - which seemed to me to be a pretty good filling for a pie. But, the mixture was a little dry and wanted to be "goopier" to be a proper filling, so I added a couple of good dollops of jarred caramel sauce. Parfait!

I cut out little ridged circles of dough with a biscuit cutter and put them on a silpat-lined baking sheet.


Then pressed a 6" lollipop stick into each round


Put a little dollop of filling in the middle of each pie, then top it with a 2nd piece of dough.

Seal
the dough with the end of a lollipop stick. Bakerella uses the side of the stick and goes all the way around. Me, I took a shortcut and just poked 'em. Then brush with cream or egg wash or cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes and you've got....

PiePops!!

Ready for a bite - yum!

And guess who won that pie contest.... ME!

Gettin' the pie pops ready for the party. I popped them into a wrapping-paper-covered block of styrofoam

A couple of things I'd do differently:

1) Brush the pies with egg wash rather than cream for a more luxe look
2) Chill the pie crust rounds once they've been cut
3) Alternate baking pans so I'm always assembling the pops on a cool pan - doing it on a warm one made 'em a little soft and goopy
4) Do a more thorough crimping around the pies to seal them



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