Mini pies

I’m generally really happy with Breville products, but I don’t know how to feel about the Personal Pie cooker.

The positives:
It makes adorable pies

The negatives:
Forced to store a uni-tasker
The edges of the crust always burn
More work than making normal-sized pies

The first thing I did was whip up 5 (FIVE!) batches of Martha Stewart’s Pate Brisee – the easiest pie crust ever. The dough was rolled and cut with the special tool that is included with the Personal Pie. It’s a round cutter that makes the “perfect” size pie crust for the Personal Pie.

I let the piemaker heat up for 3-4 cycles before pressing each mini pie crust into the machine’s cavity.

First, it was a stressful procedure. While the piemaker was cooking the bottoms of the placed crusts, I had to quickly and carefully press the next raw crust circle into the cavity. Even when I was being extremely gentle, I tore most of the crusts. The Personal Pie does include a pusher to get the crust in, but I found it to be useless until I’d mostly pushed each crust into place by hand.

I filled each pie crust with about 1/3 c quiche mixture (1oz milk for each egg, lots of herbs, bacon, shredded cheese, and some green veg), closed the piemaker, and waited…

While you wait, my favorite piemaker.

I heard sizzling and saw steam and I could not wait to see my adorable pies.

After about 12 minutes, I opened the lid and carefully extracted each pie with this specialty tool (another point against the piemaker – specialty tools are needed)

This thing. Obviously, this is not my photo.

 

It was really disappointing to see that the edge of each crust was burned. If I’d cooked for less time, the filling would have been runny. Many comments on the Breville site also complain of the edges burning. I really couldn’t see a way around it. Even with the silly pie tool, I broke a lot of pie crusts as I was lifting them out of the Personal Pie.

It tasted good, and it was adorable, but also burned.

 

When I make pies in the oven, I usually wrap foil around the edges. With the Personal Pie, there’s no way to wrap foil around the edges because the unit presses the dough at the edges, and cooks it from both sides.

 

I tried my hand at cooking some plain shells for a pudding-style pie, and those didn’t look very nice either. (lazy recipe: chocolate pudding mix, cream cheese, and cool whip. don’t judge me)

 

Chocolate pudding pies

Another annoying element of the piemaker is that the template cutter makes pie crusts that are too big. Look how much crust flash there is (outside the sculpted part of the crust).

I like double crust pies a lot, but you can’t make them in the normal way with the Personal Pie. The manual says that puff pastry should be used on top instead of regular pie crust dough, or else the pie won’t cook properly.

I still have about 14 mini pie crusts in the freezer, but I’m not in any rush to make more mini pies. It is kind of fun, and they are cute, but one big pie is a lot less work and a lot more satisfying.

You can eat mini pies with a knife and fork, but I found it to be easier to just pick it up the pie and eat it. One mini quiche with a salad was enough for a full meal.

Additionally, and I’m not trying to bash the piemaker anymore than I already have, the Personal Pie manual says that large bread can be substituted for pie crust. I call bullshit. I tried it, and it was a waste of time. Large slices of Oroweat wheat bread wouldn’t quite fill the circle template, and when I attempted to push the bread into the cavity with the pusher, it was clear that there would be no room for filling. I ended up making Mr. Crispys* the old fashioned way.

*In my house, we call Croque Monsieur sandwiches Mister Crispy. Because we’re dorks, and because I can’t spell monsieur without looking it up.