MINIATURE HEART PIES

Last week I decided to do a fun little project for my husband for Valentine's Day.   I am dubbing it "10 Days of Love" and everyday (since yesterday) until Valentine's Day I am giving him small/fun gifts. Day one was a simple note and a bag of his favorite peanut M&M's and for dessert I made these adorable miniature heart shaped pies.  You can grab this amazing pie presser tool at Target right now for around $5 bucks.   I thought this was a great investment because, hello, year-round mini pies?! Yes please.  And also, I can make little pizzas or other calzone type things. Basically, I was excited.

I got home and put my pies together, and I tried to cut out a cute heart shape from the center, which actually just ended up looking weird and kind of cracked.  But oh well, this is real life and not every project turns out magazine worthy, you know? They still tasted AMAZING and I think  my next try will yield a prettier result.  IF you want to make these pies and don't have this handy tool you could easy use a large cookie cutter to cut out a shape you like and then lay the dough in the cookie cutter and press to make a small indention to fill your pie.  You would then just lay your second crust on top and use a fork around the edges to press the dough together.  Here are a few more photos and the recipe I used!

Raspberry Tarts
1 package refrigerated pie crust (no, I didn't make homemade. this isn't smitten kitchen y'all!)
1/3 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup fresh raspberries (or blueberries...or strawberries...or apple with cinnamon....)
1 egg, beaten

Directions:  Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your dough and cut out two shapes either using the tool above or with a cookie cutter (make sure the cutter is large enough, about three inches wide).  Mix sugar and cornstarch together. Making an indention in the center of one heart, spoon two tablespoons of your fruit into the center. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of the sugar/cornstarch mix over the fruit.  Using a brush, coat edges of both hearts with egg.  Using the tool press the two pieces of dough together.  If you don't have the pie press, lay your second heart shaped crust over the other and use a fork to seal the edges together.  Baste top with the egg and sprinkle with sugar.   Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown!

not as beautiful as I wanted, but quite delicious! 

Are you doing any fun DIY's for Valentine's Day?
Any suggestions for why my heart cut-outs cracked and looked so sad?!

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