PLEASE SEND HELP! You’d think with this lock down situation going on I’d be upping my meditation game, serenely working on my salad making skills and mindfully swinging my veggie spiralizer... and yet, here I am. The only thing I’m absolutely mindful of are the tiny breaks I have to myself to cook and bake things that comfort my soul and sustain my morale. They all, rather unfortunately, happen to be intensely calorific and carbolicious (that’s a word, right?) but hey, if it’s keeping my spirits up, who am I to argue? 🤷🏻♀️
I had way too much fun making these Strawberry & Rhubarb Jam Mini Pies. They started their lives off as small hand pies, and while I liked them, I was not at all happy with the jam to crust ration. Sometimes more is just more, amirite? So I made a bigger version. Which was also good, kind of like a pop tart, but I was still not happy. So I decided to bring my trusty muffin pan into the picture and the minute I spooned two whole tablespoons of filling into the dough-clad hollow, I knew I was on the right track! Yum-o. Definitely a keeper.
xoxo Donata
Ingredients
Makes 12 Mini Pies
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
2 1/2 cups (10,5 oz, 300 g) rhubarb, washed and cut into chunks
3 cups (500 g) strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/2 cup (115 g) sugar
2 tbsp (30 g) butter
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
2 pinches salt
2 tbsp (15 g) cornstarch
Dough
2 cups flour (256 g), plus more for dusting when you roll out the dough
1 tbsp (15 g) sugar
1 tsp (10 g) salt
2 sticks/1 cup (230 g) unsalted butter
2 tbsp whole milk
2 eggs
Baking spray
Muffin tin
Instructions
To make the dough: Whisk flour, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into cubes. Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture, forming pea-size crumbles. You can use a food processor for this step, but be careful not to overwork it, you want those little bits of butter in there.
Whisk the milk and one egg together in a separate bowl and then add to flour mixture. Work the dough until it’s smooth but still with visible flecks of butter. Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap; chill at least 2 hours before using.
To make the filling:
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the strawberries and rhubarb into the saucepan and cook until soft and the rhubarb has broken down, about 20 minutes. Stir in sugar, lemon juice, vinegar and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with four or five tablespoons of the strawberry rhubarb filling until smooth. Combine the slurry into the mixture in the saucepan and keep cooking for another five minutes. Let the filling cool to room temperature. Then cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before using it.
Assemble and bake the pies:
Lightly spray the muffin tin with baking spray. Set aside. Whisk the remaining egg with a tablespoon of water to make an egg wash. Set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 1⁄4 inch (0,5 cm) thick. Use a 4 inch (10,5 cm) round to cut out circles. Gather the scraps and reroll as needed. Gently press the circles into the hollows of the muffin tin and press the dough so it comes up all the way to the edge of the hollows. Fill with two tablespoons of the strawberry rhubarb mix. Cut out smaller rounds of 3 inch (7 cm) as tops. Brush the edges of the filled pie with the egg wash with a basting brush. Place the tops on and then meld together by crimping the edges together with the tines of a fork. Place muffin pan in the fridge and chill for 20 minutes.
Heat oven to 400 F (200 C). When the pies have chilled, remove from the fridge. Brush the tops with remaining egg wash. Using a knife, cut a cross into the tops of the pies.
Bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes; let cool before serving.
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