Nothing knitting or scrapbook or even dog related today. This weekend I made miniature Chicken Pot Pies. I was cleaning out a seldom used cabinet and came across my Sunbeam Electric Pie Maker and it brought back such wonderful memories. My son and I used to make pies both sweet and savory, all the time for his school lunches using this maker! It's been at least 15 years and probably closer to 20 so I was fully prepared for the pie maker not to work, imagine my joy when the light came on!!
No real recipe here, just chopped up about 1/4 cup each of white onion, celery, red bell pepper, yellow squash and zucchini. 1 teaspoon minced garlic. Sauted in EVOO until tender and added 1/4 cup frozen peas & carrots and 1/4 cup frozen chopped broccoli and 1/4 cup frozen Southern Style Hash Browns. Let that simmer on low until everything was thawed and tender. Added 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup, 1/4 cup white wine and 3/4 cup chopped grilled chicken breast.
Cheated here and used Pillsbury premade pie crusts. These are wonderful to have in the frig for spur of the moment desserts or in this case, meals. Just take out a roll of dough, let it come to room temperature (about 15 minutes on the counter) and unroll. My Sunbeam Pie Maker came with a little cutter to cut the dough that has long gone missing. I used a round cutter for the tops and I cut around a dimitase saucer for the larger pie bottoms.
Preheat your Pie Maker
Because I no longer have the cutter/tamper provided with the machine, I had to work rather quickly and carefully (this thing gets HOT!) to position the bottom pie crust into the machine and push the center down for filling purposes. Take a little more than 1/4 cup of filling (you want the top to be domed, it cooks better if touching the top) and place your top pie crust on. Close the lid, lock in place and wait for the light to go off. I did add steam vent slits so they wouldn't ooze.
Here are some of my pies, I made 3 crusts worth. Didn't count them.
Cut a slice to show you the tender flaky crust and yummy filling. Sorry the light at that point was so bad!! I don't have any idea if Sunbeam still produces the little 2 pie electric Pie Maker since mine is so old. I do know that Breville has a 4 pie Pie Maker that you can get from Williams Sonoma. They also have a recipe book, Mini Pies that looks really interesting and maybe I will break down and get it soon. If you don't want to invest in the Electric Pie Maker then you can always make Pocket Pies.
These are most of my Pocket Pie Molds. The top 2 are from Williams Sonoma. They also have a Heart and a Pumpkin. The white ones I've picked up over the years. Some called Dumpling molds but you can fill them with anything! Tovolo also makes shaped pie molds, a pear, strawberry, heart and star that are reasonably priced. I do not have any, have never used them and can't tell you anything more about them.
Just to walk you through how these work (and I didn't think to actually make one to show you before using all my pie crust) This side is the Cutter. You use this to cut the pie crust. Now turn the mold over.
This side is for filling and sealing. Place one piece of cut dough into each side, fill and close. Make sure to really squish it closed to seal it well, they will still taste good if the filling oozes but they aren't as pretty!!
These little pies are great for picnics, school lunches or after school snacks. You can freesze the baked pies and take out what you need, thaw, warm gently in the microwave and viola, easy snack/meal!! The kids would love to help with these and aside from actually putting the pieces into the electric maker, can help with every step! I hope you get to try one of these soon!!
