Mini Plum Pies
These mini pies have buttery, flaky homemade pie crust, filled with juicy, tart plums spiced with a little allspice.
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Equipment
- (6x) 4 1/2 inch Tart Pans with Removable Bottoms
- Baking Sheet + Parchment Paper
- Pastry Cutter or Food Processor
- Saucepan
- Rolling Pin + Bench Scraper
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 lbs red or black plums, ripe (about 7-8 plums)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 ½ tbsp corn starch
- ¼ tsp allspice
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
Crust
- 1 1/2x recipe All Butter Pie Dough (enough for 3 pie crusts)
- all-purpose flour, for rolling out the dough
- 2 tbsp milk, to brush over the pies before baking
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar, for sprinkling over the pies before baking
Instructions
Filling
- Remove the pits from the plums, then chop the fruit into 1/2 inch pieces.Baker's Note: The peel is soft, so there's no need to peel the plums, unless you want to. I used red plums, which have red peel and yellow flesh. If I had peeled them, the pie filling would have been yellow, but the red peel is a natural dye, and it colored the filling a vibrant red color. The peel also contains a lot of the plum's flavor and tartness, which is another good reason to keep it on the fruit.
- In a saucepan, combine the chopped plums, sugar, corn starch and allspice. Over medium heat, bring the fruit to a simmer. Stirring frequently, continue to simmer the fruit until the juices start to thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter.
- Let the plum filling cool to room temperature, or make it a day or two in advance, and refrigerate until needed.
Pie Dough
- Prepare 1 1/2x the recipe for All Butter Pie Dough, as instructed.
- The recipe yields enough dough for a double pie crust, so 1 1/2x will give you enough dough for 3 pie crusts. This is plenty of dough for today's project, with some leftover, to ensure you have enough.
Assembly
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set your tart pans on the baking sheet.
- Work with half the dough at a time, wrapping the other half in plastic wrap and refrigerating until needed. Roll the dough out thinly, to about 1/8 inch thick, using as much flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and the rolling pin.
- Cut rounds of dough two inches larger than your tart pans. I used a 6 1/2 inch round acrylic cake disk as a template for cutting my dough, since my tart pans were 4 1/2 inches in diameter. Without stretching the dough, fit the dough rounds into the tart pans, letting the excess dough hang over the edges. Sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon flour into each crust, to absorb moisture and prevent a soggy crust.
- Divide the plum filling between the tarts.
- Roll out the rest of the dough, about 1/8 inch thick, for the top crust. Cut the dough any way you like, with strips for a lattice crust, a top crust with a cutout in the center, or using pie crust cutters to cut flowers and leaves. I thought that the lattice crust looked the prettiest after baking, though, and when I make these again, I'd top all of them with the lattice crust.
- Arrange the top crusts over the filling. Then use your fingers to press the dough down around the edges, to seal the bottom and top crusts together, and to cut the dough off at the edge of the tart pan. Remove the dough scraps.
- Place the pan in the refrigerator to chill the pies for 30 minutes, before baking.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Lightly brush the milk over the top of the pies, and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
- Bake the pies for about 45 minutes, until the crust is puffed and golden brown, and the filling is bubbling over the edges onto the baking sheets.
- Let the pies cool for about an hour, then remove the sides and bottoms of the pans. Enjoy the pies warm, or at room temperature.
- Fruit pie is best eaten the day it's made, while the crust is more crisp. But you can keep the leftover pies loosely covered at room temperature, for up to 2 days.
Notes
Gather up the leftover pie dough scraps, wrap them in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3-6 months. You may have enough for a single crust pie, a smaller, free-form galette, or a few pop tarts or hand pies.
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