Feature Post: Pi Day!

Hey guys, this is Hannah! She's a math teacher, a great baker, and most importantly one of my really wonderful friends. A couple of weeks ago was Pi Day (03/14) so she came over and made some ADORABLE pies that you get to see on feature today!

 

Being a math teacher means that celebrating Pi Day is pretty much mandatory. It is a day however, that I have always enjoyed because I am fascinated my pi. It is absolutely amazing that no matter how large or small a circle is, its circumference divided by diameter is always a constant number, pi. Anyway, I won't bore you too much with the math because we all know that the real reason we celebrate Pi Day is to make pie! I decided on mini pies because they are perfect to share. My all-time favorite flavors of pie are berry and key lime so of course, that's what I made. These are so delicious that they could be made any day of the year, but I decorated them for the holiday. I made my own stencil to cut out pie crust in the shape of the pi symbol to place atop the berry pies. I had planned to write the digits of pi on the key lime pies using writing icing but the icing separated so I gave up and left them plain. They were so delicious that they really didn't need the extra decoration.

I hope that you enjoy these recipes!

Mini Key Lime Pies

 

Ingredients:

• 6 graham crackers
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup key lime juice
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with liners. Make graham cracker crumbs using a food processor (or crush them in a Ziploc if you don't have a food processor). Mix together with butter and sugar. Divide crumbs evenly between cupcake liners and press down into a firm layer. Bake for 8 minutes and then remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk, egg, lime juice, and Greek yogurt until smooth. Fill each cupcake liner and bake for 15 minutes or until the custard has set.

Let them cool at room temperature and then refrigerate for a couple hours until they are cold. Serve with whipped cream!

Mini Berry Pi(e)s

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes of refrigerated pie crusts (you can also make from scratch)
• 2 packages (12 oz) raspberries
• 2 packages (12 oz) blackberries
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 5 tbsp flour
• 3/4 c sugar (may need more to taste)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

Mix all of the filling ingredients together. Smash berries slightly so that you get an even amount in each of the mini pies.

Lightly cover work surface with flour and unroll dough onto it. Use a 4-inch round cutter to stamp out rounds (I used a plastic lid from a parmesan container)

Place rounds in muffin wells and crimp to fit. Fill wells 3/4 of the way up with filling.

To create the pi symbol: I created a stencil by printing off a pi symbol the size of the muffin wells and mounting it on cardboard. Then, I placed this stencil on top of the crust and used a knife to cut around it.

If it is not Pi Day, you could also create a lattice for the top crust.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool and then serve with vanilla ice cream!

Downloadable recipes here: Mini Key Lime Pie & Mini Berry Pi(e)