Mini Fruit Pie Perogie Thingies

So I got all fancy and tried to take a nice picture.  This is what you get, so be impressed, please.

   I want you all to know that I may have to coin that phrase now, "Mini fruit pie perogie thingies" is going to be the name of my new cook book.  Or not, either way you heard it here first.

  So this is one of those, I wanted something fast, and I didn't get what I wanted at the store and I wanted to use an old tool I had, and I wanted it to be easy.  ( That's what she said.)

This was my set up, before the cherry pie filling hit the fan.  Or you know, got all over my stuff.

  Anyway,  I had plans to make some box mix cupcakes and I wanted to make another fast item to post about, and to take to work.  So I decided to revisit the fruit pies that I made with Pork Chop and his friend.  So I hit the store on the way home looking for pie filling and pie crust.  And this store is going in my bad books, I am always finding pass due stuff, but this time topped them all.  All the apple pie filling cans were covered in a thick layer of dust. That should have been my first clue, then I checked the dates.  I am so anal about best before dates, it drives Hubby nuts.  Anyway, they all expired in May of 2011.  It is June 2012 people.  I told a few people working their and the answer was "oh the people are all young here."

What does that even mean?

I have this rolling pin, Hubby really wanted it. I think we may have used it twice, so now it is three times.  We have a kitchen gadget issue obviously.

  So I sent an email to head office, I mean someone could get sick if they eat the old stuff right?  I mean one time it was week past due cottage cheese. But as of this post, no reply so what do I know right?

  Okay back to the pies.  So I ended up with cherry and pumpkin pie filling.  I grabbed three packs of the ready made pie crust and headed home.

I am sure if you wanted you could take the scraps and roll them back out, but you know how I am about extra work right? 

  I wanted to make small perogie size pies, because then you can eat like 4 and it is still not as bad as a big slice of pie.  Sort of.  So I had these perogie makers I got back in college.  And I actually used them in class, twice I think.  They were like $1 in china town, so it was worth it.  I like how easy they are to use and how small they make stuff.

See how clean this is, that was about to change, but not until after I took pictures.

  So to start I wanted to try pumpkin pie until I actually read the label, after I got home, and it said you needed to add an egg and evaporated milk.  I didn't have that milk, and I figured that even if I did it would make the filling too watery to work in my little perogie maker thing.  So I opted to just do cherry.

  As I was setting this all up, Pork Chop asked what I was doing, so I told him "Making baby pies like we did with So and So."  And he looked at me and said something like "I hope they are not ugly like mine" And I felt bad because he only remembered how his looked compared to his friends, not the fun of making them. So being the good mom I was I said "Yours were great!"  And he gave me "the look" and I just kept smiling like crazy, and so he walked away, and I think he was actually shaking his head.

I figured three cherries and just a tiny bit of the sauce was more than enough.  Then brushing the edges with egg wash helps them stick together.

 Anyway,I started by laying out the pie crusts, you get two in a pack.  I rolled it out just a bit to make it a little thinner.  Then I cut out the circles using the perogie maker.  I got 10 large and 6 mini ones out of each package of crust.

  Then I layed one crust in the maker, and pushed it in a little to make a dent.  Then I put a tiny bit of filling, too much and they explode.  Don't ask me how I know this.  Then I brushed the edges with egg wash.  I just mixed an egg with some water.  Then close and press the perogie maker and it seals it all together.  I placed them all on a parchment lined cookie sheet and brushed them with more egg wash.

After this one everything was covered in cherry pie filling.  I got a little carried away with it and wanted to put more in.  This was one of those times when less is more.  Which really makes no sense at all.

  I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 9 minutes, just until the crust was browning.

  Then I used the mini circles to make chocolate peanut butter pies.  I needed something tiny and did not just want  chocolate so I used these itty bitty peanut butter cups I had.  I had to be careful, 3 of them was the max that would fit in the pie.  I sealed and egg washed them like the big pies, and they took about 7 minutes to bake.

This was my first try, I tied to put in 4 of those tiny candies and it made the stupid pie crust break, so only 3 would fit.

   Now I did bring a few to work, but I actually put a bunch in a plastic container and froze them.  I figure I can pop them in the toaster oven for a quick treat and that would be perfect.

  Pork Chop really wanted to try them, but didn't actually as far as I know.  But I loved them, and I swear one day I will do pumpkin.  This is a little pricey as the pie filling and crust are not that cheap, but if you are not lazy like me you could actually do it all from scratch.  And you know that will never happen in my home right?

Again, the professional picture I took.  I know, I just keep telling myself you come here for the humor and not the pictures.

 Also I think that pie is the new pop tart, you know, only without lots of icing.  So they are a healthier option for us.

  See what I did right there?  I just justified you being able to eat these for breakfast.

  Your welcome!


I'm linking up HERE

 

Oreo Cheesecake Pudding Pie

Looking at it like this, you cannot even tell how badly I messed up.

Oh boy, this is going to be a doosey.  I so love to read other blogs, and find inspiration in them.  I always see things others make and pin it away and think, I will never make that.  Then I usually don't  because I always screw things up.  Until I saw this pie at Lil Luna.  I was all, I can make that.



And then I tried.

And this is why I should never make things from other blogs. I know they are never going to be as good.  But still I try, and fail, then eat all the evidence.

So if you check out the original post on Lil Luna you will see this amazing pie, that you will think looks so easy and yummy.  Which it is, if you are good at following simple directions, that is.

So I will show you what I did, and tell you how I made it differently.  Not on purpose of course.  Just so you know. Then you will want to make the original, and maybe mine if you like second best pie.  Who knows; you might right?

This is all I had to buy, I had the rest of the stuff at home.  Notice my cool laptop, I just had to include that, it makes me look like I know how to blog. Because no one would ever know someone with a laptop did not have any clue how to work computers right? Oh and side note, Hubby says the cupcake thing on my laptop is embarrassing, so he pretends it's not there.  I like it personally

Firstly, I was having a play date, not with the kid who must have a baking craft.  Oh no, this was going to be one where I could sit and chat with my friend while the boys ran around and tore the house apart.  It was going to be awesome!  So I thought,  I should make desert and impress my friend.  Now my friend is amazing, she acts impressed with everything I make, which is great.  I know it is all a front, but that is why I love her. Also I made home made pizza, Hubby made the pizza dough for me and I did the rest.

This is the cream cheese filling before I added the cool whip.  It tasted really good, but the cool whip made it even better.

 Let me know if you want to have Hubby make a post about how he makes Pizza.  It is so good, and he makes it really thin for me so I can eat lots and not get sick on the doughy crust.  But you can also make it thicker and it is still amazing.  Okay back to pie.


So I went to my local store to buy all the stuff to make this pie.  And this is where it all fell apart.  My store of course did not have Oreo pie crusts, what they did have was either graham cracker crust, which just seemed wrong.  Or they had this butter crust. I thought great, butter crust it is, because there is no way I was going to make a crust from scratch.  That was until I started checking the expiry date.  I dug and dug, and I think after 6 crusts with a date of "best before May 2011" I was getting upset.  I found one with a good date, put the expired ones in my cart also and kept shopping.

I only added about 1/3 of the tub of cool whip, but it seemed like a lot.

I needed white chocolate pudding, and if you guessed that they did not have that either, you get a prize.  So I opted for Oreo pudding, I mean it is supposed to be an Oreo pie, so that is what I went with. The other stuff I got, I turned in the out dated pie crusts and headed out.  And just so you know, the store people were really upset about the outdated crust and rushed to pull the rest off the shelf. Stuff happens, you know?  I am a stickler for dates, so I always check.  Not a big deal.

So the next night, the night of the play date, I set to work.

And when they say to fold things in your batter, you are supposed to lightly mix the stuff in with a sort of weird movement.  Not like me, where I stir it all crazy like.  Just so you know.

Oreo Cheesecake Pudding Pie
Adapted from Lil Luna found Here

-pie crust of your choice ( I used the butter crust, I loved it)
-1 row double stuffed Oreo cookies cut up*
-1 8oz block cream cheese
-1/2 cup butter
-3 squares semi sweet baking chocolate melted
-1 large tub of cool whip**
-1 cup icing sugar
-1 box Oreo pudding mix***
-1 1/2 cups milk****

This is the only non expired crust I could find, and I think it was either called butter or short bread.  You can use anything, as long as it is not expired.

*I tried crushing the Oreos once before, but because they are double stuffed they just sort of smooshed so I cut them
**I have no idea if the large tub is bigger here or what, but there was a lot, but I like lots of whipped topping so it worked out great for me
***You can use any flavor I think, well, not pistachio, lemon or butterscotch, that would be wrong I think.
****I actually used 2 cups, but my pudding was way too thin, so use 1 1/2 cups if you actually read recipes, which I obviously don't do, d'oh!

Now if you are not a wimp like me, you would have filled this all the way up.  I thought I would save the left over filling to eat with apples, or just with a spoon, but it got hard and gross when not in a pie, so it ended up in the garbage.

I decided to make my cheesecake filling chocolate to counter the fact that my crust was vanilla.  I just added 3 squares of melted semi sweet bakers chocolate to the cheese mix.  It worked great, but either I screwed up or I was just wimpy, but it would have fully filled my pie crust.  I used about 3/4 of it.  I should have used it all, because it tasted amazing.  So next time, I will use it all, and just not be able to cover the pie with the lid.

See that cool cutting board, it is the most colourful thing in my kitchen.  Other than the wall o' sprinkles that is.

Then for the pudding layer I was supposed to use only 1 1/2 cups milk, but I didn't read that fully until it was too late.  I should have paid attention because my pudding was a bit too runny.  I still used it and it tasted great, but it didn't hold together too well.  Oh well, live and learn right?

I learned the hard way to never try to smash double stuff Oreo's, they just end up smooshing together, so cut them,.trust me.

Then I put on a bunch of cool whip, and my chopped up Oreos.  I used double stuffed since that is what I had.  Then I put it all in the fridge hoping it would set up.  It did , sort of.  I mean it was amazing, I would have eaten the whole thing.  The pudding was soft, so the top sort of slid off a bit, but people I could eat this every day!

  And I am so lucky to have such a great friend, because I sent it all home with her, except for a small piece.  I had to see if it tasted as good the next day.

This is my watery Oreo pudding layer, at least we get to cover it with cool whip to hide it.

And just in case you were wondering, it tasted just as great the next day.

So notes for next time.  I will use all the cheesecake filling, no wimpy thin layer for me.  Let that pie spill over the crust.  Read the whole darn recipe and use only 1 1/2 cups of milk for the pudding layer, making it thicker so it won't spill out of the crust.

I put on as much Cool whip as I dared, I still had some left over.  I may have eaten it with a spoon the next day, just to get the container out of my fridge.  

And maybe try making this in cups with just Oreo crumbs or crushed Oreos for the bottom and that way you can eat just a little and not feel so bad.  Or heck just make the pie and eat until you are sick.  I mean you don't even have to crack an egg, so you know it's going to be healthier than if you did right? No? Well, whatever you have to tell yourself, just make it, and try Lil Lunas way too, because I bet hers is even better.

It looked so nice, then I tried to put the lid on it and realized it was one huge pie.  Ha, I said huge pie!

I cut a piece and did the happy dance when it was not a total flop.

And this is the picture where you can actually see the layers.  People that know what they are doing can cut a piece and make it look nice.  I never said I know what I am doing, just so you know.