Make My Love Heart Shaped
Day Thirteen: Shape Your Love (hand pies!!)
My family says they’re not tiring of heart shaped things: but maybe that’s because I’ve been making Pie! These lovely little fruit and chocolate tarts were made using a hand-pie mold I bought on a whim at the grocery store. It’s made by Nordic Ware and was 50% off: I figured, if it didn’t work, it was the price of a mocha. I could afford to risk the price of mocha, right? (And yes, many, many purchase decisions are made by the answer to the question, “How many Starbuck’s Mochas could I buy for that?!)
The press worked “just ok”. As you can see from my pies, the edges aren’t that crisp. I’m not sure if that is an error on my part or not, as the directions were pretty skimpy on the packaging. But I did like the bowl of the heart press: it made filling the pie easy. When you’re making hand pies and the bottom crust is on a flat board, it can be difficult to “mound” up the fillings without getting spillage everywhere. So, I guess it’s a trade off.
When I use the press again, I think I’ll also omit the little cut-out heart on top. It’s cute in theory, but in practice it made removing the pies from the mold cumbersome.
I filled these pies with good chocolate chips and raspberries (Geo had raspberries and Apricot jam, because he’s not a fan of chocolate.) — but your options really are endless. Especially if you don’t use that decorative cut-out! Any bit of fruit and chocolate, or jam and finely diced nuts. If you’re really brave, you could even use a custard filling of some sort.
Just a note, these pies can handle a lot more filling than I used! I placed about 5 raspberries and a few chocolate chips in mine: wish I had doubled the fruit for a better fruit to crust ratio. It will look like a lot, but in reality: there is a lot of crust in a hand-pie. That’s stating the obvious in retrospect — but at the time, the small amount that I used “looked” like enough. In the future, I will stuff those babies!
I baked these at 425 for about 10 minutes. Which are the directions for my pie crust recipe. Any pie crust will work, even store-bought. Use your favorite or experiment. If you come up with a chocolate pie crust, let me know.
Such a hit! And a sweet way to give your love. Of course, you don’t have limit your heart-shaped love to fruit pie. There’s always pizza-pie! (which, for the record, is on the menu tomorrow!)
Pie? Pie!
So pretty! Just wanted to share. I hope your weekend is amazing!!
On This Week’s Agenda
Pie! We’re traditionalists at heart.
It’s nearly the 4th of July, but unlike most years I’m not so frazzled. My traditional schedule of deep cleaning the house right before the arrival of guests over the holiday was put on hold this year. IZ’s sister isn’t feeling up to making the drive this holiday(it is a hike out to Astoria!) because she has to work the next day. So, while we will miss getting to visit, I’m not running around like a nutty person cleaning things that no-one will ever see.
Of course, that means I’m not running around like a crazy person cleaning. Um. That might be a problem. We’ve not reached code “pig-stye” yet, but we’re on the way if I don’t get to that long to-do list. That’s the upside to incoming relatives: I get compulsive about cleaning the house. Otherwise, I find different things to occupy my time… the yard calls, I answer. The thrift store beckons, I succumb. The lounge chair and a good book and a cup of tea, and I have a case of cleaning amnesia. Cleaning? What’s that?
However, while the deep cleaning frenzy will be happily over-looked by the men in this house, I’m not off the hook for baking pie. It’s just not the 4th of July without pie. IZ asked if I wanted to cheat this year, but it’s Cherry Pie. I’d prefer to cheat on hard things. Like laundry. Or painting. Or exercise! No, Cherry Pie is easy. So, in addition to breathing, I’m baking. You know, sometime between that book, the lounge chair, and a cup of tea.
It’s all on a week’s agenda.
