Oh, Giada. Whenever I see you on TV, I'm impressed with how fatty your food looks and how non-fatty you look. And thus, I should have known better than to trust a skinny girl's dessert. The recipe below is from Food Network, and I followed it quite closely; I wasn't going to mess with something like a baked item. So I spent a Sunday afternoon making these Baby Strawberry Pies for a work birthday celebration the following day. How cute they looked... and how empty they were inside! Like eating a strawberry-scented pie shell. Booo... If you want to try these, triple the berry amount. I see why Giada is so slender - there's nothing in her pies!
(Source: Giada De Laurentiis – Food Network)
Makes 12 mini pies
Total time: 60 minutes
Ingredients
Vegetable oil cooking spray
2 unroll-and-bake refrigerated 9-inch pie crusts (recommended: Pillsbury)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon arrowroot
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
8 medium strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces, to yield about 1 1/4 cups (or try 2 pounds)
1 egg, beaten
Directions
Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
For the crust: Spray a 12-count nonstick mini-muffin pan with vegetable oil cooking spray. Put a strip of parchment paper, 1-inch wide and 5-inches long into each muffin cup, allowing the excess paper to overhang the sides of the cups.
Unroll the pie crust and using round cookie cutters, cut out 12 (3-inch) circles and 12 (2-inch) circles of dough.
Lightly press the 3-inch circles of dough into the bottom and sides of the prepared muffin cups.
For the filling: In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, lemon juice, arrowroot, and orange zest until smooth. Stir in the strawberries.
Spoon the filling into the muffin cups and using a pastry brush, lightly brush the edges of the dough with beaten egg. Put the 2-inch circles of dough on top. Using the tines of a fork press the edges of the dough together to seal. Lightly brush the tops of the pastry with the beaten egg. Using the tip of a knife, make a 1/4-inch wide slit in the center of each pie.
Bake until the crust is golden, about 14 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 30 minutes. Using the overhanging parchment paper as handles, remove the pies from the pan. Remove the parchment paper and serve.
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