Easy Mini Cherry Pies

I’m so glad cherry season is finally here! This year instead of making one large pie, I decided to make these easy mini cherry pies using a muffin pan.

Easy to make, with fresh sweet cherries, they’re just as delicious as a full-size pie, only cuter! By using store-bought pie crust, the time to make them was virtually cut in half.

Something else that made these pies easy to make was my brand-spanking-new 6-cherry cherry pitter! If you recall, last year when I made a cherry pie from scratch, I told you I saw this really cool cherry pitter at the store. It had the capacity to pit 6 cherries at once. I chose not to get it because I didn’t want to spend the money on a gadget that I would only use once a year.

I ended up using a cake decorating tip to pit the cherries. Although that process got the job done, it was time-consuming and messy.

Later on, in the summer, the pitter I had admired ended up on the clearance aisle. When I realized it was about half the price, I scooped it up and ran to the register. I have been waiting for cherry season ever since!

I finally got a chance to use the new pitter and I cannot even begin to tell you how much easier and neater it was to use. We pitted 30 cherries within 5 minutes!

It seemed like it took 5 minutes to do 5 cherries last summer. I am so pleased with this new gadget of mine. If I had known it was going to make such short work out of pitting cherries, I may have bought it before it was on clearance. I’m glad I’m a tightwad when it comes to things like that.

SCORE!!

Whether you use a fancy pitter or not, here is a quick and easy recipe for easy mini cherry pies you’ll love!

How To Make Easy Mini Cherry Pies

Make the Filling:

Combine cherries, water, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Bring the ingredients to a boil of medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat to low. Stirring frequently, cook for about 10 minutes. Remove the filling mixture from the heat and stir in almond extract. Allow the filling to cool before using.

Prepare the Mini Cherry Pies:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out a single pie crust on a flat surface. Use a biscuit cutter or any circular lid to cut out a 4-inch circle of dough.

Press each circle of dough into the bottom of a muffin pan so that a tiny rim of dough sticks out the top. Repeat with remaining dough to fill all 12 muffin cups.

Fill each cup with about ¼ cup pie filling, or until the filling nearly fills the cups.

Dot the cherry pie filling with butter.

Use the remaining dough to cover the tops of each pie.

STANDARD CRUST: To make a standard crust, cut out a circle of dough just large enough to cover the top of the crust. Gently press the top crust to the bottom crust until they stick together and no gaps remain.

LATTICE CRUST: To make a lattice crust, use a knife or pizza cutter to cut out thin strips of dough. Lace the strips together to form a lattice.

SHAPES: Use specialty pastry or cookie cutters to cut out shapes or simply freehand them as I did.

Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of each pie with Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is lightly golden and the filling begins to bubble. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

When the pies have cooled, carefully use a knife to loosen the edges of each pie and gently lift each pie out.

Serve the mini cherry pies with whipped cream on top or cover and refrigerate.

Making these easy mini cherry pies is a great way to have dessert without feeling like a total pig. With just a couple of bites, you are done, without that overwhelming guilty feeling you have when eating a slice of a whole pie. It’s kinda like having your cherries and eating them too!