Mini Strawberry Pies

5 from 1 vote

If you like strawberries with a creamy filling and buttery pastry, then you are going to fall in love with these Mini Strawberry Pies! Just imagine fresh strawberries on top of a divine little cream pie with a super flaky crust! It's a simple 2 step recipe that is the ideal mini individual strawberry pie dessert for your next party or gathering!

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Resting time2

Total Time2 55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 501kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Mini Pie Crusts

375 g All purpose flour
270 g Unsalted butter 82% fat, use it very cold
120 g Water use it very cold
¾ teaspoon Salt

Diplomat Cream

500 g Whole milk 3% fat
100 g Granulated sugar
80 g Egg yolk approx. yolk of 4-5 eggs
25 g Corn starch
25 g All-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
50 g Unsalted butter 82% fat, room temperature soft butter
3 Gelatin sheets 3x1.7g=5g gelatin overall
200 g Heavy cream very cold. 36% fat

Strawberies

250 g Strawberries fresh

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Mini Pie Crust

Mix flour and salt and place them into the freezer. In the meantime, cut cold butter into small chunks and place them also into the freezer for 5-10 minutes to chill.
Once all ingredients are nicely chilled, add very cold butter chunks into flour and rub the mixture between your fingers until it becomes a sand like consistency.
Add very cold water into the dough, a small amount at a time, and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition.
Start working the dough with your hands. First, it will look crumby but it should come together in the next minute or so. No need to knead the dough, stop mixing it as soon as it comes together. Remember, leave in some butter chunks, do not overwork the dough, and do not use a mixer.
Form a disk, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
After 2 hours, take the pie dough disk out of the fridge and let it rest few minutes on the kitchen counter. The dough should stay cold but slightly warmed up to be able to roll it out without breaking it.
The easiest way if you roll the dough on or in between two silicone baking mats. With the help of a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangle of 42x30 cm / 16x12 inches.
Alternatively, transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and start rolling it out into a rectangle of 42x30 cm / 16x12 inches. No need to add too much flour while rolling, the pie dough should be cold enough not to stick to the kitchen counter. If at any point the dough gets too warm, pop it back into the freezer to chill for a minute then continue.
Check the size of your muffin pan holes. The diameter of the dough circle should equal the size of the muffin tin holes (from the back) in the following way: 2x side + 1x bottom, in my case is was 11 cm / 4 inches.
With the help of a cookie cutter, cut out circles of the dough that will fit your muffin pan holes.
Flip your muffin tin and slightly press down the dough on the cavities of the tin.
Chill the pie dough again now in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 200 C / 372 F (no fan)
Take the cupcake tin out of the freezer and bake the mini pie crust in the following way: 20 minutes on the tin, then carefully remove them from the tin, apply a light egg wash (egg yolk + milk), and bake for further 5 minutes.
The pie crust is ready when it is baked even golden brown.

Diplomat cream

Diplomat cream can be made with room temperature pastry cream stabilized with gelatin and whipped heavy cream.
Soak gelatin sheets in cold water.
In a large enough bowl, with the help of a Hand whisk, whisk together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes then whisk in corn starch, flour, and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated and have a smooth paste.
Bring milk to simmering on medium heat then pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk.
Then, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first but don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy.
Squeeze excess water from the gelatin sheets and stir them into the mixture one by one.
Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a Rubber spatula until completely incorporated. It is worth adding the butter in 3 stages and mixing well after each addition.
Cool pastry cream to room temperature. Place the cream into a shallow bowl or cake pan and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top.
Once cooled, whisk the pastry cream for 1-2 minutes to get a smooth texture. Make sure you do not over whisk it as it can get runny.
Whip very cold heavy cream until soft peak then carefully, with the help of a rubber spatula, fold in heavy cream into the pastry cream. It is worth adding the whipped heavy cream in 3 stages and folding after each addition.

Assemble

The Diplomat Cream can be used immediately in your mini pie crusts, or place the cream into the fridge for a few hours to further set.
Fill each mini pie crust with sliced strawberries on the bottom then spoon or pipe the diplomat cream on top. To finish, decorate the mini pies with sliced strawberries and a few mint leaves.
Serve the Mini Strawberry pies immediately. Any leftovers can be stored refrigerated for 2-3 days.

Notes

Leave some bigger butter chunks in the pie dough mixture - this will encourage flaky pie texture on the pie crust - no need to fully incorporate the butter into the flour
I recommend using every other cavity on your muffin pan so that when the crust puffs up during baking, they won´t touch each other
While rolling and working with the dough, do not force it, do not stretch it. Always work with a dough that is cold enough to be able to handle but not too cold to break it
It's worth keeping a good quality (so that the milk won't burn in it) small/medium-sized saucepan for making pastry cream only
Let the pastry cream chill before folding the heavy cream in

Nutrition