The idea of ‘how clean is your house’ has been making the rounds on the sites, and Deanne commented that her house is her playpen – clean but not neat. Beth’s is her castle – tidy, but not overly clean. My house is my lab – always in a state of disarray. It’s not that I don’t clean, it’s that a clean room invites some sort of project to take place.
Case in point. Beth, Tara and Tim stopped by for a bit this afternoon and the house was in semi-disaster mode. After they left, I spent some dedicated time doing house work. All the snowmen stuff came down, I dusted a bit, put away stuff in the living room and dining room, and tackled the kitchen counters. You may have remembered from the colander post that I had some apples sitting on the counter. I stupidly bought a bag that had bruises on every single apple. They sat on the counter for over a week because I couldn’t bear just throwing them away. So….. after the kitchen was clean and shiny…..
(Don’t fret – I cut off the yucky parts.)
So, lids on and in the freezer. WAY more work than I thought it would be, and the kitchen is a disaster again. But, I made six tiny little pies and stashed them in the freezer. Today after church, I baked up:
I love you, tiny pie in a jar! I’m a crust lover, so this has the perfect crust-to-filling ratio for me. With a bit more tinkering and some other fruit fillings, we may be able to eat a different kind of pie each day! It will be good to cook something else in that oven when I’m baking bread.
UPDATE: For Deanne (I wish I had a giant quarter, because that would be so funny!):
On the off chance that anyone is reading this anymore, let me answer a few questions that came up in the comments.
I can’t remember the recipe for this dough – it had shortening, water, flour, salt and I subbed out some vinegar and vodka for the water. It was drier than a butter dough. (I’ve made that since and didn’t like it as well.)
Itried several ways of rolling out dough and trying to piece it in, but it actually worked best to just put chunks of dough in the jar and smash it around inside.
A drier filling won’t boil over as much as a juicy one.
Once it’s assembled, just screw the lid on the jar and put it in the freezer. I think it should keep well for at least a month. (I’m totally making that up, but hey – they sell frozen pies at the grocery store and they aren’t flying off the shelves.)
I bake these at about 375 – 400. Take the jar out of the freezer when you turn the oven on to preheat it. Take off the lid and put the frozen jar on a plate or baking vessel so you’ll have less thermal shock when it goes in the oven. (Read: Your jar shouldn’t crack. I’ve never had one crack.) Put a ring of foil around the edge of the pie for the first 45 minutes, take it off for 15.
Let it cool and either eat it out of the jar or run a knife around the edge to get it out. I said it’s a good crust-to-filling ratio, but it’s really a lot of crust. Cute, though!
A 2-crust recipe should work for about 6 jars.
Let me finish by saying that it’s really funny that so many people read this post. I am constantly bemoaning how I can’t make a good pie crust. If I had a show on Food Network it would be called, “Can’t Make Crust” and I’d visit sweet little grandmas around the country and make them teach me their skilz.
These are wide-mouthed 8-ounce jars (think small-cereal-bowl-sized), not tall skinny jars. I apparently caused a bit of confusion. Sorry, everyone!
SUMMER UPDATE: The obsession continues with “eat-’em-frozen” jarred desserts.
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They’re gorgeous! But I don’t have a feel for what their size is… uh, could you sneak a quarter in there?
Also LOVE your house is your lab… it really seems to fit!
Finally, we haven’t seen any bread creations lately. Have you tried anything new?
I feel your pain about the bruised apples. One of my superhero powers is the ability to always pick bad apples. I can generally avoid bruises, but the apples I pick are ALWAYS mealy. I think that if a genie offered me three wishes, one of them would be to reverse that power.
Always buy Granny Smith. There, powers reversed.
Here’s the kicker – we also have a bag of mealy Granny Smiths! I thought that was illegal! They’re going to become the second round of pies.
Oooh, the granny’s make great pies. I guess if we all bought apples in season… that’s what we get for buying apples from Chile. (I just ate a mealy apple today, and I think I still have about 5 left, which I may make into a crisp. I’m pie crust challenged.)
try to buy local apples if you can…i heard somewhere that big apple ‘companies’ vs. orchards have found a way to store apples from the previous years’ harvest…don’t know if that is true but i bet those apples might be the mealy ones…by the way those pies are irresistably adorable…i would eat that for breakfast or at any time for that matter!!
I hope you removed the quarter before freezing/eating!! Belch!
I hope you just threw that one with the quarter on it away. Quarters are dirty. Eeeeww.
Oh, I licked it clean before I put it on the pie. I’m not stupid, you know.
LOL
And all other currency is clean?
Your house is your lab, indeed. And mine, my castle. And Brad’s, his small animal morgue…oh wait, that’s his back yard…Brad’s, his terrarium.
How about Brad, his garden?
Thanks for the quarter!!
I always suspected that the TV people could watch us too … it’s the government watching us, like they’ve always said.
(and I need the quarter for scale to see how tall these little buggers are. Can you take a bite once it’s cut in 1/2? )
I was thinking the same thing, but I was too embarrassed to ask since I got what I asked for!
And what size jars are those? Wide mouth half pint? I’m only guessing, since I’ve only bought canning jars once in my life and it was over 10 years ago when I was feeling crafty…
Whew! When I first read your comment I thought you were an expert canner and I was going to have to reply with, “I don’t know… they’re short and wide.” Let me check. Yes. Wide mouth half pint!
As to Peggy’s question, they are a little over two quarters tall, so it depends on the size of your mouth.
Me an expert canner? Ha! You funny!
Mmmmmm. . . I wish someone would make that for me.
C’mon over. You know where we live!
This has got to be one of the coolest ideas! I want pie!
Janet told me about your great idea and I concur…and I want pie too! I am culinarily challenged – how long do ya bake them and do they leak all over the over and make the smoke alarm go off? My poor dogs don’t like that and it happens 2 times out of 3 that I use the oven…
Ha! I’m glad you like them. I put a frozen pie (lid off, of course) on a heat-proof pan, wrap the edge in aluminum foil, bake at 375 for 45 minutes, then another 15 or so with the foil off seemed to work. I only had one boil over, but it didn’t smoke too badly.
Do you put foil on the edge of the pan or the edge of the pie?
Sorry. Edge of the pie so it doesn’t over-brown.
(I found this post via notmartha.org)
This sounds like a really cool idea…especially if you want to have pie from time to time but don’t want to bake a whole pie. Reheated pie pieces just aren’t as good as fresh baked, either.
Have you had any issues with the jars when frozen or taken from frozen to baking?
I’ll have to keep an eye out for some wide mouth jars to try. Thanks for the idea!
How long would you be able to keep these in the freezer??
I’ve only frozen two batches, and ate them up within a week or so. I would guess it’s pretty airtight in there with the lid on so they should be alright for…. I don’t know. To the laboratory!
To answer the freezer-to-oven question, I took the pies out of the freezer, put them on the ovenproof plate, then stuck that on top of the oven while it preheated. I figured that was enough thawing to keep it from exploding. (It would be BAD to put a frozen jar directly on a hot oven rack. Bad.)
How bad exactly?
Thats what happens watching too much MI-5
how did you get the pie out of the jar so cleanly?
Did you spray the jar with pan release first?
thanks
I just ran a little knife around the inside of the jar and it popped out. All the others I just ate straight out of the jar.
Those look so awesome!
Okay, this looks so good I want to try it. But I have no idea where to get jars like that. What should I look for? And do you have a recipe? I’ve never made pie before!
Torchwood!
You can get the short quarter pint Mason jars at any hardware store in the canning section, and in many large grocery stores as well. If you aren’t going to can, the plastic twist-on freezer lids are less work than the two-piece metal canning lids.
These are so adorable and practical!
I know what I’m doing this weekend…
Who is that on the TV in the first picture? She appears to be very, very upset about the bruises on those apples.
We sometimes buy ceviche in jars just that size – and I can always use another excuse to eat ceviche!
I vote that you make them a little shorter, so that you end up with two inches or so of room on top. Then, after they are frozen, put a 12″ square of plastic wrap over top, pack to the top with vanilla ice cream, fold the plastic over, and screw the lid on. When you take it back out for reheating, the puck of ice cream will pop right out. Unwrap it and drop it back onto the hot pie for yummy pie a la mode.
Clever! I’m not sure if I said anywhere that they go into the freezer unbaked, so it’s baking a frozen pie, not reheating. (Like a frozen pot pie. Mmmmm….pot pie….)
@Chialynn:
It’s actually a he. It’s “Owen Harper”, a character on BBCs “Torchwood”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Harper
BTW, love the pies, gonna make some this week!
Ah, thank you, Rolando. I don’t have cable (or any TV reception, actually), so only watch series on DVD. We’ve been working through the new Dr. Who – I think Torchwood’ll be in the Netflix queue soon.
Pyrex makes glass freezer to oven dishes about the same size as the mason jars although they are slightly more angled than the jars. I’m thinking chicken pot pies…
I can’t subscribe to your RSS feeds… it says the page can’t be displayed. Just found your blog via Craftzine, and would love to have the feeds. Can you help?
Hmmm, I suspect that has been broken for a very long time. But it should be working now. Thanks for the heads up.
How many crusts do you need for six jars? So I can plan, ya know? Like for a 2-crust pie? Thanks!
Came across your post via http://www.yumsugar.com
Such a great idea. It’s something I would definately wanna give a try.
How clever–kind of like those cakes in a cup I saw months ago, but pie is even better.
The most adorable picture of those are here at Angry Chicken – which is the best website name ever.
What is that T.V show in the background?
It’s “Torchwood” on BBC America. That’s Owen Harper when he’s switched personalities because some alien is messing with his head.
oo i’m totally making these. i’m a college student and have discovered rather unfortunately that my eating habits have gone down hill. i love pie but was afraid that if i made one i’d eat it in one day :S these are a perfect, and controllable size for me
You should be able to buy those 1/2 pint-wide-mouth jars at a Wal-Mart Super Center. Those look so good, and I’m not a pie eater, but love that filling. Do you have a recipe for the filling?
What a wonderful idea! Love them little jars.
This is adorable. I would experiment like crazy with this idea, I did the cake in a jar thing years ago as teacher gifts. Did the cookies in a jar, too. They loved them, but this is great. For that dessert craving, portion control, everything, love it!
Hi, I just posted this at Not Martha, and it occurred to me that should post it here, too. I have some confusion about the measurements in this idea. I checked out the sizes above, and Not Martha (who rued not using 8-oz jars) definitely used the same size you used, 4-oz, although here in the comments, you seem to have made a mistake, calling them “wide mouth half-pint.” 8-oz, half-pint jars are, if we use your measurements, about 4 quarters high, not two. We just made these, using 8-oz (half-pint) jars. This had some unintended consequences.
First, they’re just not nearly as cute.
Second, you can’t put the dough in and push it against the sides, because the jars are too deep and, using standard wide mouth, too narrow for an average person’s hands.
So you have to roll dough, make 2 dough circles, put one at the bottom of the jar, roll out a long-ish rectangle, make it into a cylinder, insert the cylinder in the jar, fill it with filling, put the other dough circle on top and tidy up the top of the cylinder. A lot of fussing, especially with pie crust, which notoriously does not appreciate fussing.
Next time we’re going to try the little 4-oz, because I think the wishful thinking (on Not Martha) about 8-oz didn’t take into account the fact that the size difference is in height, not height and width.
But the whole idea is absolutely adorable, and we’ll be making more.
I’ll have to fix this when I get home (I’m at work waiting for things to print – I’m not goofing around. Really!) Anyway, the 8 oz. jars I used were pretty short & squat. You can see a picture of them side-by-side with the 4 oz jar here. http://lloydandlauren.com/?p=1792 Sorry for the misunderstanding. I never thought about tall jars. You’re right – those are no good for pie.
for pie dough try this recipe. I could NEVER make pie dough (and I tried all the “sure fire” “no fail” ones) untill I tried this. Now I never fail!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Miracle-Baking-Powder-Pie-Crust/Detail.aspx
Has anyone tried this with Pumpkin…I was thinking it would be perfect to take to Thanksgiving…kind of kitchy but hopefully delicious!
This are very cute. My husband is in Iraq right now and I am sure he would love some pie. What do you think about baking them in the jars and them sealing them with the lids while they are hot. Think it would last a week for the hike overseas?
I would worry about the crust getting soggy if you sealed it hot, plus I’m not sure about how long pie would last unbaked. Then again, I’m completely germ-phobic when it comes to food.
I was wondering the exact same thing, for the exact same reason, Sarah. (aren’t deployments fun?…not!) I have heard that the cake version travels over there really well. The crust sogginess factor could be a problem, though…
I would bake the pie before sending it. So it would be baked and then sealed and sent.
I’d say perhaps freeze them again and send them in a cooler with dry ice? I looked up some stuff on an FDA website, but I misplaced it. Good luck!
Tell your husband thanks so much for his service to our country!!
I am trying to figure out the same thing. But I’m fairly positive dry ice would be a huge no no in a war zone. It can be used to make bombs!
I told my husband I was going to try….if it doesn’t smell good or taste ok on first bite toss it.
And soggy crust will be more like cobbler…we Southerners love that anyway!
So I went ahead and baked the pies in the jar and then put the lids on while they were still hot. The lids sealed really well. After they had cooled completely I put them in the freezer overnight. In the morning I wrapped them with bubble wrap and put them in one of those flatrate boxes from the post office with fragile written all over it. Sent them on Wednesday last week and my hubby got them Monday night. He said they turned out awesome. Nothing broke and the crust was not soggy. I did a homemade cherry/blueberry mix filling for the pies(his favorite). Now Hubby in Iraq gets to have my homemade pie on thanksgiving. Thanks for the idea Lauren. Give it a try Amber. I am sure your hubby would love it. I sent extra so he could share with his buddies. I am going to do this with cake for his birthday in January.
That’s AWESOME! Makes me a little teary to know your husband gets to have your pie for Thanksgiving even though he’s half way around the world.
Man, do we have an amazing amount to be thankful for!
You know its people like you that makes this old world go round i think this is great and about the sweetest thing ive seen in a while i dont know you at all but this little pie says it all thanks and never stop.
Love the pie in a jar idea. Think I’ll try several fillings. I may even make a few meat pies as well.
I was wondering if these would ship good to the troops? How would you seal them? Thanks Darlene
Sarah (a couple of comments above this one), tried sealing them up and mailing them. She has a nice detailed explanation, and if you’d like her to e-mail you, I could certainly ask her if that’s ok.
I would love for her to send me any ideas cause we would love to send them out next week. Thank you so much Darlene
Thank you so much, am baking in Saturday with a friend. I am excited to get these over to the troops. Darlene
Has anyone tried anything else to troops…like meat pies, etc? I figure if pie and cake work well…why not “Pot roast in a jar” stop laughing I’m fairly serious!
Normally for Pie crusts I use my great-grandma’s recipe of 2 cups flour, 1 cup shortening, pinch of salt and enough water to bind. (more or less for stiffness)
I love this – this idea is one of the most wonderful things I have seen – I was looking for ideas on how to send something to my son deployed in “the SandBox” – found your information an Navy for Moms – this takes the cake! No I am going to make Cake in the Jar and send it for his birthday! along with some apple pie! So cool thank you!