These little strawberry pies are a nice wholesome treat to have around for the kids, or even to serve up for a ready made breakfast They remind me a little of the Pop Tart type treats I used to get from the food coop years ago when the kids were little. Those were always our splurge. I have never been one to serve up sugary cereals or processed food for breakfast, but I did like those Pop Tarts when I was growing up, (at our house it was a rare treat as well, because my mom wasn't a sugary breakfast person either). When we had our kids, I was able to find a "healthier" version of the Pop Tart through the food coop, and so we could have a little of that delight, without feeling like they would be on a sugar high all morning.
Processed foods are full of sugar, color, preservatives and various enhancers that can cause so many problems with behavior and health, that we try to stay away from it as much as possible. You can make your own treats with so much less sugar and add a little whole grain, without loosing any of the delicious flavor. One of the blogs I read, posted a recipe a couple of weeks ago entitled "Strawberry Rhubarb Hand Pies".... I must say I got weak at the knees when I read that one. I wanted to make it very much, but couldn't get ahold of any rhubarb; so I skipped the rhubarb and went with the strawberries I had, and used my own pie dough recipe, after a few alterations of my own, out came some wonderful little pies. I wanted to share them with you. And please pop over to Home Joys for her strawberry rhubarb version, if you happen to get ahold of some rhubarb.
Wash, drain and dry your strawberries.
Slice, ....
chop, and measure 4 cups fruit. Set aside.
Mix your dry ingredients.
Slice butter into thin slices and add to your flour mixture. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, or your hands.
Cut in and mix until your flour is like the consistency of moist sand.
Add your vinegar mixture and sour cream.
Pour and stir until all clings together. For pie pastry work the dough as much as necessary, but as little as possible.
Pat together in a large ball.
Roll pastry into a large rectangular slab about 1/8 of an inch thin.
With a biscuit cutter cut circles.
Here is an example of the thickness.
Cut out all your circles and place on a cookie sheet. Preheat your oven to 375.
When your pastry is cut out,
Add your sugar mixture to your strawberries. I do this at the end, because once the sugar is added to the strawberries, they start making juice quite quickly... and I don't want them too juicy yet.
Put a spoon of the strawberry mixture onto your pie.
Don't worry if it gets a little messy; they still come out very nicely.
Cover with a second pie shell, and
use a fork to seal edges.
Cut an air port in the top.
Place in an preheated oven.
Bake about 25 minutes.
remove from cookies oven and drizzle with..
a little icing if you want.
Stack on a pretty plate to feed your troops or eat a few now, and freeze some for later snacks or breakfast.
Little Strawberry Pies
For the fruit filling
4 cups fruit chopped
3 Tb flour
5 Tb sucanat or organic sugar
For the Pie crust
2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat flour
2 1/2 cups Unbleached Flour
1 cup butter
1 cup butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sucanat or organic sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup milk
3Tb vinegar
1/2 cup sour cream
Icing
1 cup organic, unbleached, powdered sugar
2 Tb half and half
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
For Filling: Chop fruit and set aside.
Prepare your pie crust as follows:
Measure milk and vinegar into a little cup and place in freezer to chill. Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir well. Slice the butter in to thin slices, and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, or use your hands to rub the flour into the butter until it is all the consistency of moist sand.
Add the milk mixture, along with the sour cream. Stir until dough clings together. If your flour mixture is still a little dry and crumbly, you may add a little more cold water until it clings together nicely. I always stir until mixture clings together, but not to over mix or over knead. Pat together in a nice ball.
Place on a floured surface and roll out into a rectangular slab about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut out the circles with a biscuit cutter. Place onto cookie sheet; fill each cookie sheet, leaving half of the dough for the top pastry. You will have left over dough once the first batches are made, gently knead them together, and roll out and repeat. Re-working the dough is sometimes a little tricky, so do it gently so as
not to over work it, for that will make it tough.
Finish Filling; add your sugar and flour and stir until well mixed. Add a spoonful to each circle of dough on your cookie sheet. Top with another pastry circle. Press both together with a fork. Cut a slit in the top of each with a knife, and bake in preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes or until slightly golden, with bubbly center. Remove pies from oven, drizzle with icing and serve hot or cold.
For Icing:
Mix together sugar, milk and vanilla, adding more milk if you desire a thinner icing and less if you desire thicker. Drizzle over pies
Makes 40-50 little pies.
Tips: The vinegar adds a tenderness to the pie crust, and gives it a good flavor. I have added vinegar to my crusts for years and it really does make a great crust. This is not the regular pie crust recipe I use for regular pie, but both use vinegar. This crust has a little less fat than a regular pie crust recipe, and few extras I don't usually use, but works well for this kind of pie.
Enjoy!
