Introduction: Pie in a Jar

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Tiny pies.
Made in jars.
Frozen to create individual freshly baked pies when you want them.
What could be more adorable?

Step 1: Ingredients

I always include "Ingredients" as my first step.
But in this case, the ingredients are up to you!
Have a big dinner party coming up with many different tastes?
Make your pies in different flavors! Identify them with cute tiny shapes cut out on top!

I made my own pie crusts for these, but you can use store-bought as well.

I made apple-blackberry filling (the recipe as follows) but you can use something from a can! It's that easy.

Mostly, what you need are tiny adorable jars.
Or big ones, whatever. I don't judge.

Step 2: Apple-Blackberry Filling

Here's how I made these particular little bites of heaven:

  • Peel, core and slice 4 Granny Smith apples
  • Dice 1/2 cup blackberries
  • Melt 1/4 cup unsalted butter in a saucepan.
  • Stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour to form a paste.
  • Add 1/8 cup water, 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Follow remaining steps.

Step 3: Prepare Jars

Boil your jars and lids for 10 minutes if you're at sea level, and one minute for each 1000 feet of elevation above sea level. This makes sure they're clean and ready!
via: How to Can

Step 4: Fill Jars

Fill your jars with the pie crust.

I rolled out the crust to make it pretty thin (so it's not just a jar of crust in the end - though I did make one of those too and sprinkled cinnamon on it and it was delicious), but in the end, you just have to take chunks of it and squish it all around inside the jar to make sure it's covered.

Add your pie filling and top it off with a crust. Use the lid ring to cut out the perfect size!

If you're planning on eating them right away, just fill them to the top and the crust can crown over the edges.

If you're planning on freezing them, make sure to only fill them part way so there's enough room to sink in a top crust and close the jar lid.

Step 5: Freeze or Bake

You can't store these in the freezer forever - they're not sealed like jams are. But you can certainly make them up well ahead of time and freeze them for a bit.

When you're ready to bake these, take the jar out of the freezer and turn the oven on to preheat it at 375oF. 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. 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.

And lastly, a note from Simple Simon, our inspiration:

The whole "glass shattering from temp changes" fear is the thing to worry about when you put the glass into direct contact with the change in temp, e.g. the stove, a campfire, boiling water, etc. A hot oven isn't the same thing at all because air has lousy heat transfer. Consider how you can stick your hand in a 210o oven for several seconds. Now consider sticking your hand in boiling water. Same temperature, but one causes a little discomfort while the other causes severe burns. The reason is that water transfers heat very well, as does metal (like a stove).

Don't ever stick your frozen jars into warm water. Don't ever stick your glass jar on the stove. Don't ever stick your hot glass jars into even room temp water. But frozen glass into a hot oven? Go for it. Cooks Illustrated (and their sisters, ATK and Cook's Country) have several recipes for things that go straight from freezer to oven with no trouble in the test kitchen, and they are where I got that information.