Itty Bitty Pies...Do they count?

My New Year's resolution for 2009 was to learn how make a pie crust. Yeah, I know it's a weird resolution, but pastry intimidates the bejeezus out of me. I'm not quite sure if I accomplished my goal.

I'm pretty sure these wee pies don't count. Felt isn't quite what I'd consider a tender flaky crust. They do make mighty cute magnets though. Thanks much to nikki at whiMSy love for the stellar idea.

I think the Single serving pie in a jar is closer to the mark. I first saw this idea on Best Bites, but apparently the concept is all over foodbloggerdom. The concept is quite brilliant. A single serving pie in a wide mouth half pint canning jar. They are frozen and when you're ready to eat one you just pop it in the oven. No defrosting needed.

I had the hardest time finding the right size jars. I looked for them in at least seven different stores. I found every size but the one I needed. I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to make some jar pies for my uncle for Christmas. I asked her if she could look for them around where she lived. Of course she found them at the first place she looked. Grrr! At least she found them.Since it was almost Christmas when she found the jars,it didn't make any sense for my mom to ship the jars to me. I made them at her house and she supervised my crust making. Actually, it was more like me pestering her every step of the way to make sure things looked alright.

While the pies were made with a butter crust, the question that needs to be asked is, does it really qualify as me making a pie crust??? The first jar I put the crust into, I pinched off pieces of dough and smooshed them in there. That seemed like it took forever. Then,I tried rolling out a small circle of a crust and folded it up to fit inside the jar. Well, that took even longer, so I made the remaining jars with the pinch and smoosh technique. (Yeah, that IS a technical term, along with dealie and thing-a-ma-bob.)

Along with one of the bottom crusts in the jar, I also rolled out tops for half the jars. (I made a crumble topping for the remaining servings.) Since some rolling of dough was involved, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I did succeed in my goal of making a pie crust. Granted, I waited until the end of December to even attempt my resolution. There's nothing like procrastination!

I had planned on baking one of these before giving them away, but with all the excitement of Christmas I plum forgot. I'm still waiting for feedback from my uncle as to how they tasted. Hopefully, I haven't heard anything from him because he hasn't baked one up yet, and not because they were absolutely horrid. If they did turn out disgusting, I'd like to know so I can figure out what in the world went wrong.

If you decide to make these pies for yourself or as a gift, make sure you check out Lollychop's site where you can print out cute free labels for the tops of your jars.