The Story

I happened upon a link on my Twitter timeline about Pie Lollipops [which can be viewed here].  That blog post pretty much had me at the first pictures..it was PIE in a handy to go form.  Let’s just pause for processing.  PIE…on a stick.  Two to three bite morsels you can grab and go.  The perfect size to go with however you take your pie without having to buy in bulk. What’s even better?  You can freeze these unbaked.  That’s right, you can spend a few hours in your kitchen putting these together, then freeze them for later and pop em in the over when you’re ready for them.

I was going to make these.  Which meant I was also going to learn how to make pie crust from scratch, as well as an assortment of fillings.  I made this my Fearless Friday endeavor, despite that technically I was accomplishing this on a Saturday.  See, I was gonna try a few combinations and see which worked out best.  No surprise that from scratch was just better all around.  Also? Most everything was easier to make than it seemed.  There’s  a lot of recipes used here, so I’ll really be linking to them.  All I did was scale down the yield.  If for some reason, those links are no longer working…just shoot me an email via the contact form and I can send you PDFs.

How’d It Go

I was in my kitchen most of the day, but this was largely due to I was making a LOT of these little tasties.  I made four from scratch crusts, and used four ready made.  Two crusts it turned out were better suited for any kind of pie crust that was a crumbly kind, like say using a graham cracker crust.  This resulted in an impromptu batch of mini quiches.  That was actually fortuitous because I used some leftover veggies that had been growin tiresome palette wise..even for me.  And I can easily eat leftovers for a week.  They turned out delicious.

Prep time: This varies depending on which route you go with for crusts and fillings.  Your prep time for any fresh made fillings will be fruit prep.  Like say, pitting cherries.  You can use the already sliced apples [in fact I did and they were scrumptious].  Pie crusts used came together quickly, however, they needed to chill for about four hours before use.  Also, cutting each round is a bit consuming with the six crusts I made. Of note, if you’re going to make the pecan pie filling, have that lined up and ready to go about the time you make your crusts.  That bad boy calls for a four hour chill time too.

What you may not have handy: European style butter, fruit for your fillings, baking cocoa, whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat flour, ready made pie crusts, apple cider vinegar, and possibly cornstarch dependent on how much you make your own sauces/bake.

Budget: Pastry flour, fresh fruit, European butter are the pricier items on the shopping list.  Canned filling is also up there.

What I Used

I used Plugra unsalted butter and if you know from other baking endeavors of mine, that’s a staple if I’m not substituting.

After the first batch, I opted to just bake the remaining with the from scratch fillings because I found the canned fillings..well awful after biting into a freshly made lil apple pie..on a stick.  I’d go from scratch at least with the fillings whenever I make these again, the end result is very much worth it.  I used the already sliced Granny Smith Apples you can get at the store [and skipped the soaking them in water with a Tb of lemon juice to prevent browning, no need] .  They turned out great.  They didn’t cook to the point of mush- they were softened just right after a 15 minute tussle in the oven.  I used Bing cherries  because we already had some [they were uber cheap, so we couldn't resist]

Also, if you’re scaling down the provided recipes, a scale is your friend as well as this site.  I can also give you the breakdown for the fillings I tried so you don’t have to do the rework.  I had a cup of apple, a cup of the cherry and I made the full recipe for the pecan and chocolate, but scaling those won’t be hard.  Three cups of pecan was way more than I needed.

All my fillings had two hours in the fridge getting happy.  Having made a batch of apple filling and turning around and filling a pie pop or eight, I can say the only difference is after chilling, I needed to add a little more flour to thicken up the sauce for the apples.  The cherry filling was fine.  If you have the time, let them get happy.  Resting and marinating’s never a bad thing, right?

What I’d Do Differently Next Time

I’d prolly try the white whole wheat flour and make a crust using regular all purpose flour.  I prefer the texture from the homemade pie crust to the premade.  They paired better with the fillings and it was much more tender and flaky in comparison too.  Also, a whole wheat crust will probably be an acquired taste for most.  I did find they went extremely well with fruit.  I bet on a more breakfast-y slant, using oatflour could be delicious.

As it was mentioned in the original Pie pops post practice makes perfect as you find what works.  I found that the base was OK if it wasn’t extremely thin.  I did roll out the top piece after it was cut to cover, treating it much like you’d stretch a pie crust on a two crust pie.  This way, by the latest batch I did, I got more filling without not being able to seal them.  Also, you can see the fruit through them a bit, which visually appealed to me as well.  It’s all up to your preferences really.  But having at least the top layer be as thin as you can manage seemed to work the best for me.  Sometimes it was enough to just pull from the center slightly to account for the mound of filling on there.  I also ran out of sticks, but kept making them.  When they’re wrapped, they’re still small and ready to go.

Also, Trex is keen to know how they’d taste with lemon curd, so that’s something for next time.

Options to consider:

Whatever you’ve had as a pie…you can use it for a filling as long as you can get it thick enough it will hold it’s shape.  I managed to make a chocolate custard used for chocolate pies to use as a filling and the pecan pie filling is a cake filling recipe.  I added some ultra fine chopped pecans and some rough chopped pecans at the finish.  It doesn’t look like pecan pie filling [dark, thicken syrup color] but it tastes like it.

I found I needed to add a lil more of a cornstarch slurry [equal parts water and cornstarch until thick yet runs] and bring the custard to a boil again in order for it to thicken up.  I may have just not let it cook long enough, but it thickened nicely and held shape so I could add some cookie piece sized pecans to them.

Pie Lollipops   Print This Post

Pie Crust recipe here.  Crumbly pie crust from Homesick Texan as well as the Chocolate Custard.  Apple Pie filling from here.  Pecan Pie filling here.  Cherry pie filling here.  Since I linked the recipes [I didn't alter any, just scaled them where needed], there won’t be any recipes posted.  Instead, I’ll elaborate more on the combinations I tried and how each of them turned out.  If for some reason the links stop working, I saved the recipes..send me an email via the Contact link and I’ll send you the PDFs I have.

I had a crust that used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, one that used just whole wheat flour, and then four ready made pie crusts.

Chosen fillings were cherry, apple, pecan and chocolate.  I picked up canned cherry and apple fillings to try.

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour Crust

This was a very tender crust that went well with all fillings.  I’d say the pecan,chocolate and apple fillings stood out the most with this crust.  When Trex tried these, the biggest thumbs up had to be the Cherry.  Trex doesn’t like a whole lot of her fruit cooked, but when she said the Cherry was delicious, I knew I had a winning combination.  She agreed with me on the homemade crust, it was by far better than the premade.  The premade was good, but if you had the time for homemade..homemade’s the way to go.

Wheat Crust

Again, homemade is the way to go.  I didn’t have any more cherry filling, but I did have lots of pecan and chocolate.  I made a batch of apple filling because that takes about as long to chop up apples and I wanted to see how going smaller in chunk size went [very well, more fruit in each one].  This also gave me the opportunity to go super thin on the crust and see where that got me.  With the wheat crust, this paired deliciously with the apple filling.  The chocolate was alright, but it’d definitely be for anyone that has acquired a taste for whole wheat baked goods.

Ready Made

While I preferred the homemade crust, this is a decent alternative in a pinch.  Rolling it out thinner doesn’t take a whole lot of time coupled with the fifteen minutes needed to let it come to room temperature before you play with it.  They all came out very tasty.   I even put a dot of the pecan filling with some apples for a candied apple flavor and it was an extremely delicious combination.

Filling Combinations

I combined chocolate with some pecan chips and juice from the cherry filling.  Verdict: couldn’t go wrong with that

I also tried the apples with some of the pecan; the result was a caramel candied apple flavor.  Extremely delicious and I’m not a huge candied apple fan.

I also combined the chocolate and pecan fillings for a turtle flavor.  Again, DELICIOUS.