Mini Cherry Pies

The Holidays are over, the workaday life is officially back in business. I am not so sure if am taking it too well. However the New Year will have its share of challenges and changes and I plan to greet them with open arms!
Just, until I do that, can I keep holding on to the old for a little longer? And maybe sleep in a little? And have some cherry pie instead of a full grown lunch? Good, I appreciate that ya’ll agree to that, so we can move on to these pies!
I felt the urgent need to make mini pies while reading one of my new favorite cookbooks – totally the world’s greatest Christmas present from the world’s greatest boy – from the author of the wonderful and most charming blog What Katie ate.
Now, let me tell you, boy, does that woman know how to make food look yummy! I actually wanna eat her meals right off the book pages! And she has a great tip on how to blind bake mini pies! Just you wait and see! 

Ingredients (for 12 mini pies)

Shortcrust
250g plain white flour
30g confectioners’ sugar
150g cold butter, diced
1 egg (cold)
½ tbsp. water (cold)

Filling
A jar of preserved cherries
½ vanilla pod
2 tbsp. cornstarch

Glaze
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk
some brown sugar

To make the shortcrust, mix the flour and confectioners’ sugar. Now, it has come to my attention that I sometimes use the term confectioners’s and then again icing sugar. I definitely mean the same thing – very finely powdered sugar. I just haven’t decided yet if to use American or British English terms. But now that we talk about it, you can totally make your own confectioners’/icing sugar. Just put normal sugar in to a blender, blend for 30 seconds, there it is! (Good, attention off my English skills.)Back to the shortcrust: rub in the cold butter cubes and after that the egg and the water and quickly form a dough ball. No kneading! Cover with cling film, or saran or plastic wrap (there we go again) and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Use this time to let the cherries come to a boil, get a little of their juice to stir in the cornstarch and put back in and stir until it starts to thicken slightly. Put off the heat and let cool. Oh, and when in season, use fresh cherries! 

Now, roll out the dough, cut out little rounds and put in a greased muffin tin. Grease the downside of a second muffin tin and put on top and in the oven to blind bake for 10 minutes. 

Then fill with the cherries and cover with a second layer of dough. Stripes, hearts, stars, plain rounds, be my guest, but make sure to glaze them with the egg/milk mixture and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake again for about 15 minutes and they are done! Serve with whipped cream! (I will never write a blog post this late again, I start rambling, sorry about that!)