Mini Blueberry Pies (with Homemade Pie Crust)

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Mini Blueberry Pies: Everyone gets their own blueberry pie! Stuffed full of jammy lemon blueberry filling and drizzled with glaze, these mini pies are always a HUGE hit!

A little part of me is dying inside right now.

Here in southern New England, we’re at the end of so many summer produce seasons and I can’t help but get a little depressed. No more fresh peach cobbler after next week.

And buh-bye to scalloped tomatoes after Labor Day too! Corn season hangs on a little longer so at least there’s some hope left for this Mexican street corn salad for a few more weeks.

Fresh, local blueberries are also on their very last legs too but I got to baking a couple of weeks ago before I completely depleted my summer stash. Needless to say, those blueberry hand pies were a really big hit!

They’re perfectly portable and sized just right for tiny (and big!) hands alike. Packed full with a jammy blueberry filling, those buttery hand pies were kind of a cross between pop-tarts and those glazed fruit pies you pick up at the gas station during a desperate attempt to find a road trip snack.

The main differentiating factor of course being that my hand pies were homemade with the flakiest pie crust ever.

On the same day I made those hand pies, I also made these mini blueberry pies. I only needed half of my pie crust recipe for the hand pies and rather than making a half batch or freezing half of the dough, it was just easier to use it up right away.

Right, twist my arm into making more desserts with pie dough. Such a tough life.

Anyway, I also made double-duty use of the blueberry filling that I used to make blueberry galettes a few years ago, using half in the hand pies and half in these mini pies.

Two Completely Different Desserts Using Exactly the Same Ingredients

You might wonder how I could use the same exact ingredients for 2 different desserts and how they could turn out completely unique. Well that’s the beauty of baking, my friends!

The hand pies were cut into individual squares and baked directly on the baking sheet. And overall, they were quite thin. These 2 factors allowed the pies to crisp up after a relatively quick bake.

Store-Bought Pie Dough for Mini Pies

I know I’m going to get some questions about using store-bought pie dough for these mini pies. The short answer is yes, you can buy pie dough and cut out rounds for these mini pies.

I totally understand the reasons why pie bakers buy pie dough: lack of time, convenience, cost (butter can be expensive!), poor past results with homemade pie dough, and lack of knowledge and/or confidence in making homemade pie dough.

So if buying pie dough is your thing, do it. BUT if you want to try your hand, quite literally, at making a phenomenal and easy dough, use the recipe along with all of my tips below. You won’t be sorry.

What We Loved About These Mini Blueberry Pies

Stepping off my soapbox now, let me just say that if you’re a blueberry lover like we are here, you’re going to die over this recipe.

It’s hard to narrow down what we loved most about these pies. But first, it’s got to be the buttery and super flaky pie crust. There’s nothing in the world like cutting through layers of pie crust and that first hit of butter you get from it.

The filling was delicious too! A tiny bit tart, but balanced so perfectly with the sweet vanilla glaze.

And the mini size didn’t hurt either. While a little more tedious to cut out and fit multiple pie dough rounds into a muffin tin, the presentation effect of the mini pies is gorgeous and well-worth the time, in my opinion.

So. I do hope you love these mini blueberry pies as much as we did. Honestly, they didn’t last 2 days here and should you have house guests coming in for the long Labor Day weekend or a party to go to, these pies would be juuuuust right for either situation.

Mini Blueberry Pies

Yield: 8 mini pies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Dough Chilling Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Bake Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes

Mini blueberry pies give everyone their own blueberry pie! Stuffed full of jammy lemon blueberry filling and drizzled with glaze, these mini pies are always a HUGE hit! This recipe makes a small batch (8 pies) using an all butter pie dough recipe that yields one 9-inch pie crust.

Ingredients

For the pie dough:

1 ¼ cups (157 grams) all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp sugar
½ tsp table salt
1 stick (4 ounces or ½ cup) unsalted butter, cut into chunks and kept very cold before using
½ to ¾ cup very cold water

For the blueberry filling:

1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Pinch of table salt
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

For assembly and baking:

1 egg beaten with 2 tsp water
Sparkling sugar (optional)

For serving (optional):

1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 tsp heavy cream, half-and-half, or milk
½ tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the pie dough (see notes below): Measure the flour into a large, wide bowl.Whisk in the sugar and salt.Toss in the butter cubes and coat them all with the flour.Using your first 3 fingers of both hands, mash up the butter into smaller pieces, just bigger than the size of large peas.You can also do this with two knives or a strong pastry blender.I prefer using my fingers.
Once the mixture looks sort of uniform, slightly crumbly, and the butter is broken up, stir in ½ cup of water with a rubber spatula until the water is absorbed and the dough starts to come together.If the dough is still dry and crumbly, add the remaining ¼ cup of water.Bring the dough together with your hands until it forms a soft and almost loose ball.
Transfer the dough to a sheet of plastic wrap and mold it into disk, about 1-inch thick.Use the plastic wrap to help bring the dough together, if needed.
Chill the dough disk in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before using.
Grease the 8 wells of a 12-well muffin tin. The outer 4 wells on each long side work great here.
Roll the dough into a 12×15-inch rectangle directly from the refrigerator (do not allow it to come to room temperature – remember you need to keep the butter really cold) or if frozen, allow the dough to rest in the fridge for one day before rolling. Using a 4-inch cookie cutter, cut 8 circles out of the dough. Then, using a 2½-inch cookie cutter, cut 8 more circles from the dough, rerolling the scrapes if needed. Line the dough rounds up on a parchment-lined large baking sheet. Pop the baking sheet into the fridge for 15 minutes while you make the blueberry filling.
To make the blueberry filling: Mix all of the filling ingredients in a medium bowl until the berries are well-coated.
To assemble and bake: Press the 4-inch dough rounds into the greased wells of the muffin tin. Fill each well about ¾ full with blueberry filling. Brush the edges of dough with a little egg wash. Lay the remaining dough rounds on top of the filling and press the edges into the egg-washed dough to seal. You can also use a fork to crimp the edges together, if you wish.
Using a sharp knife, cut 3 small slices in the top of each pie. Brush the top of each pie with the egg wash and sprinkle with sparkling sugar, if using. Return the baking sheet to the fridge to allow the pies to firm up for at least 20 minutes or to the freezer (my choice) for about 15 minutes. You want to make sure the dough is COLD before you bake these pies.
While the pies chill, preheat the oven to 425° F.
Bake the pies on a baking sheet for about 18 to 23 minutes, until the pies are a deep golden brown. If the tops seem to be browning too quickly, lay a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the top of the pan. Transfer the pan to a wire rack, cool for 20 minutes, then move the pies directly to the rack to cool before serving warm or at room temperature.
To make the glaze: Stir the confectioners' sugar, cream, and vanilla together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the room temperature pies before serving.

Storage: These mini pies will keep well at room temperture, stored in an airtight container, for up to 2 days. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days (they will get a bit soggy by day 4 though).

Notes

This pie dough can be made and kept in the fridge for up to a week or up to 2 months in the freezer before using.

The 2 keys to getting lots of really flaky layers with this pie are:

Use cold ingredients while keeping your dough super cold before baking, and
Visible butter chunks in your pie dough from cutting the butter into the flour with your fingers. Food processors mulch the butter up to pieces that are too small to create lots of flaky layers.

Keep these keys in mind as you make this pie dough and you can’t go wrong!

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 196

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Mini Blueberry Pies (with Homemade Pie Crust) - Smells Like Home (2024)