Barn Birdie: Delicious Mini Pies on a Snowy Day

Let me start off by saying that I love to bake and I seem to have good luck with it. Why would one need luck when baking, you ask? Because I bake like I'm cooking– I start off by carefully measuring my ingredients but I sorta eyeball this and that as things need to be modified. One needs to be able to adapt! Especially in a world of blog sourced recipes that are mismatched together. Gone are the days of following meticulously planned out cookbook recipes– maybe not for everyone but for most.

So it was a snowy day and I felt like making something tasty. You may even have what you need to make these already in your kitchen! I saw these on pinterest but the recipe called for pie filling which I don't particularly care for. They also had a lattice top, and I prefer a crumb topping. I made mine with a peach and mixed berry filling but what is awesome about this is you can use any kind of fruit in this.

So all of that was to let you know that this "recipe" (and I use that word very loosely) that I am about to tell you is a combination of three recipes and is a little abstract. If you are a person who likes something a little more precise, I recommend that you finish reading this and then google another recipe. Ha!

So here is what I used for the filling-
2 12oz bags of frozen fruit
1 c. white sugar
3-4 Tbs corn starch or (6 tbs of flour will work)
1 c. water
2 Tbs orange juice

Crust-
1 package of Pillsbury Pie Crust made 12 mini pies

Topping-
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. cold unsalted butter (I only had salted and it turned out fine, most recipes call for unsalted)

I mixed together the sugar and 3 tbs of cornstarch in a sauce pan, slowly stirred in the water* with the burner on medium. I then added the 2 bags of fruit and the orange juice. I felt it was a bit thin so I added another tablespoon of cornstarch. I let it simmer on the stove 7-10 min making sure to stir it every so often.

*I recommend using less water...like maybe 3/4 cup instead. You can always add more water in if it too thick but you cannot take it out. I was sorta straining out the extra liquid as I filled the pies.

While the fruit is simmering, roll out your pie crust. I recipe I found said use a 4" diameter cookie cutter. I had a cup approximately that size and felt it was too small– maybe my cupcake tin was deeper than theirs. I then found a container that was 4.5" and that worked better for me. You can see my little measuring tape in the background! So, test it out before you just start cutting out all your circles. You want to have some crust sticking up past the edges.

Carefully press the circle into the tin. Pinch off the extra dough and smooth it out– it doesn't have to be perfect, I promise. Make sure to check your fruit, you can probably turn it off now and let it cool while you finish filling the tin with dough. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once the cups are all filled with the dough, take your cooled fruit compote and fill the crusts three quarters full. You want to leave some room on top for your crumble topping and for a little expansion.

To make the topping, throw in the flour, sugar and cold cubed butter. Use a fork to press the ingredients together until it's mixed well and forms little crumbles. If you're struggling to get it to combine, use your hands. Your hands will provide just enough heat to get the butter to combine with the sugar and flour. Now top each pie with a heaping tablespoon of crumble.