Your Letters: Seven Species Pie

Today, January 23rd, is America's "National Pie Day." Here, at the Mini Pie Revolution HQ, we appreciate any pie-themed celebration. And yet, we have to wonder: what's so nationalistic about pie? Pie types prove regional, but pie itself ignores cultural, geographical, and political boundaries.

To celebrate International pies, we're posting a letter and recipe sent to us by a reader in Israel. His letter proves what we at HQ have always believed - that world peace (and the end of dinner table discord) depends on every eater getting an equal piece of mini pie.

We were interested to note a great technique several of our participants used for our first event: that of rolling out the pie crust and placing it on flattened muffin tin liners!

"I used to bake a "once-a-year" Arbor day (In Hebrew callled TU-B'Shvat) cake and cut it into eatable portions. We all enjoyed consuming it, but I always experienced a few complaints, such as "I always get a smaller piece!" - "Why did you give me the corner piece?" - "She got more crust that I!" etc. So this year, I decided that everybody would get an equal portion, a miniature pie. Then I stumbled upon your web site. Though I don't do these things for prizes, I like to contribute where I can. Therefore, I'm attaching a recipe for mini pies made from all of the "seven species" mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, where it is said: "You shall eat bread where aught is lacking therefrom."

Humbly, Shmuel in Israel"

Seven Species Arbor Day (Mini) Pies
"A land of wheat and barley and grapes and figs and pomegranates, a land of olive-oil and honey (dates). A land where no food shall lack when eating bread where nothing is missing from it, a land whose stones are iron and from who's hills shall copper be mined." (Parshat Ekev Devarim 8 : 8-9)

4+ cups of flour
1 T baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 cup sugar (white or brown)
1/2 cup oil (be sure to add 1 T olive oil!)
1/3 cup dark beer (barley)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup pomegranate juice (or grenadine)
1/2 t allspice
a pinch of salt
Date jam or spread
18 - 20 figs
300 grams raisins
2 eggs, beaten
1/6 cup sugar mixed with 1 t cinnamon, for topping

The utensils include: measuring cups and spoons, a large bowl, flour sifter, rolling pin, spatula, wooden spoon, a small pan, a sharp knife, a muffin baking tin, cookie cutters, and cupcake liners (I used size number 3).

Some people don't like the fig seeds, so in order to accommodate their wishes I boil up the figs while making the dough. This softens them up, making much easier to slit them in half.

The dough is kneaded thoroughly, rolled out thin, cut out in circles, and spread over the bottom and sides of each cupcake liner A dollop of date spread is applied over the bottom layer of the dough.

By now, the figs are soft enough to slice open and scrape out the seeds. This is a time consuming part of the preparation, but the figs are soft (and though a bit messy) not difficult to de-seed.

Over the date spread, we place a few raisins then half a fig. A smaller circle of dough is now placed over the fig and pinched all around to join the bottom layer, sealing the fruit into the pie.

(Karyn adds that you might want to pierce the tops of the pies with forks at this point.)

Place the filled pies into the muffin tin, and sprinkle them with the cinnamon-sugar topping.

Bake for about 15 minutes at 180 C , (about 400 F) or until the crust begins to tan nicely.

Remove from the oven and Voila! You have bread "where nothing is missing from it."

If you increase the number of figs to thirty and roll the dough thinner, you can produce sixty mini-pies. No more complaints of "I didn't get and end-crust" or "Why do I always get the edge?" "She got a bigger piece," etc.. Now, all the portions are equal.

Your Letters

After receiving his letter in December, we wondered how Old Guy In Oregon's mini pie-making day went with his grandchildren. Happily we recently received a follow-up with a few photos. We're glad it went so well.

Your Letters

howdy-

I'm an old guy out here in Oregon who's gonna be lucky enough to have his granddaughters (8 & 10) stay for a few days until the whole family comes over for Solstice. So I thought that I'd bake some pies with them (and give them a bunch of pie making stuff and baking booksfor the holidays - any ideas on good books or tools?)

so then I found your website - beaucoup cool.

I am a stew and italian sauce cook if I had to describe myself (I'm making a deep sauce and bracciole for our Solstice meal) and have never made a pie crust. My questions -

How long should I bake mini pumpkin or fruit pies? (425 for 10 min and then 375 for 40 min?

How do I keep them from sticking to the bottom of cooking tins?

How do I remove them without brutalizing them?

Do I pile the filling up high - esp. fruits, and let it run wild?

Do I give the kids the ritalin before or after the pies go in the oven?

What else would you do with chocolate chips to make them pie-worthy?

Thanks for your help.

Dear Old Guy in Oregon,

1) Temperature and baking time for mini pies: If you are using muffin tins (or mini muffin tins) we recommend setting the oven to the standard 350 or 375 F and then setting the timer for an initial 15 - 20 minutes. Check them frequently after that-- the filling will be fine, you just want the crust to brown nicely.

2) The sticking issue: We use non-stick mini muffin tins and rely on the butter-rich pie crust to do the rest.

3) Non-brutal removal techniques: This is very much dependent on the pie crust recipe you use (Ann's current favorite is this one from African Vanielje and Karyn swears by this one) and the depth of the muffin tin-- another reason why we favor mini muffin tins, as they are very shallow. Additionally, we let them cool before we even try to lift them out.

4) How much filling: If you are making an fruit mini pie and you intend to put a crust on top AND you are confident of your sealing technique AND you use an egg wash AND you remember to poke a vent hole, piling the fruit high should be fine.

If you're going to leave the top bare or lattice your crust you will probably have a bit of a mess if you pile the fruit too high.

5) Ritalin before or after the pies go in the oven? As we are not physicians we will leave that to your own discretion. :-)

6) What else would you do with chocolate chips to make them pie-worthy? We have been thinking about using that old Magic Bars cookie recipe on a regular shortcrust. Maybe try that?

In solidarity,

Ann and Karyn

PS/ If you send us photos of your pies (and grandchildren) we'd love to write a little follow-up about it... Good luck!