These are individual-sized pies made in little glass jars that can go straight from your freezer to your oven to your mouth. SO cute. You can make these with store-bought crust and canned filling or jazz it up with homemade.
You'll need half-pint jars, but short and squatty instead of tall and skinny. Kerr makes a good one and you can buy them through Amazon.
Step 1: Pie Dough The first thing you’ll need is dough. You can use any pie dough you like, even store bought.
Step 2: Make a topper and line the jar Roll out a small handful of dough. This is just for the tops of your pies, so eyeball about that much. Grab the ring part of your jar and use that as your cookie cutter. Brilliant, right? Cut out the tops and set aside.
Use the rest of the dough to line the jars. (No, you do not need to grease them) The great part is that there’s no rolling required! Just take little pieces and press them in. Make sure it’s pressed all the way up to the top of the jar, or pretty close to it.
Step 3: Fill ‘er up You’ll need about 1/2 C filling for each jar. You can use any filling your little pie-craving heart desires, even (gasp) canned!
Step 4: Top it off Make sure your “lid” has a vent so steam can escape. You can use a knive to make a couple of slits or a tiny cookie cutter to make it decorative.
When your topper is ready, slip it onto the top of the pie. It will be large enough that the outside edge goes up the side of the dough-covered jar a bit. Then use your finger, or a fork , to press the 2 pieces of dough together to seal.
Step 5: Freeze ‘em!
Ready for this? When your pies are all done and topped, place metal lids back on and seal them tight.
Then pop these little cuties in the freezer. There they will stay until you find yourself having an insatiable craving for home-baked goodness. You’ll be reaching for the crumbs at the bottom of the keebler box when suddenly your eyes will light up because you remember you have THESE sitting in your freezer.
Step 6: Bake ‘em
Now first let me say that one of the biggest concerns from everyone is about the jars breaking in the oven. All I can say it that I’ve baked hundreds of these and never once has a jar broken. These are canning jars- they are designed to be boiled, pressure cooked, etc. So it’s different than putting any ol’ piece of glass in the oven. They bake just fine!But if you’re freaking out then my advice would be this: remove lids from jars and place jars on a baking sheet. Place baking sheet in a COLD oven. Then turn the oven to 375. That will give the jars a chance to warm up slowly as the oven preheats. If you’re really worried you can always let them sit at room temp for a bit first before putting them in a cold oven. Bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and the middles are bubbly. If you’re baking them fresh and not frozen they take about 45 minutes.
Of course you can skip the freezing, bake them up and give them that way too!
