I Like...Pie

I mean, who honestly doesn't like pie? With all of the different choices you could have (fruit, chocolate, cream) it's a wonder that anyone could dislike pie. But what if your family can't agree on a flavor? The answer....mini pies!!! A personal mini pie in a flavor for everyone! This week I made chocolate mini pies for my sweetie for Valentine's Day, and they were wonderful. Even better? They were super easy, only three ingredients.

Chocolate Mini Pie

1 box refrigerated prepared pie dough (not the already cooked kind)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 bag chocolate chips

TaDah! Sounds pretty easy, huh? I made both a single crust and double crust chocolate pie. The single crust used a silicone heart mold like this one from Wilton. The double crust using a mini pie/tart mold similar to this one on Amazon.com.
Ok, to make these easy pies, take the pie dough out of the fridge, unroll it and let it come to room temperature. Pie dough that comes to room temp will shrink less in the oven than cold dough. Preheat the oven to 450. While the dough and oven are warming up, go ahead and set up a double boiler. Once the water is simmering (not boiling) pour in the chocolate chips and the condensed milk. Slowly melt and combine the chocolate and milk, stirring occasionally, do not boil.
When the dough is no longer cold, start cutting dough to put in the molds. The double mold has a handy cutter that will get the exact size. For the heart molds I cut a large triangle and carefully filled the mold, pinching and cutting off the excess.

Single crust heart mini pie

Single Crust directions:
Bake the single crust pie for about 10-12 minutes, or until a nice golden brown. When you pull them out of the oven, go ahead and fill the pie crusts while they are still in the mold. Refrigerate before removing the mold.




Double Crust directions:

Double crust mini pie

Place the cut dough in the shaper and fill the bottom with about two spoonfulls of the chocolate mixture. Press down on the tops to seal the two crusts. Use your fingers to ensure a good seal, don't want that chocolate leaking out! Place on a cookie sheet and bake for about 24-26 minutes, or until golden brown.

Pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds right before serving and hand them out with a big glass of milk. YUM!