My friend Deb is from Hawaii originally and has the art of omiyage down pat. If you are visiting someone – you bring stuff – and since she and I share a love of comics and food, I always get the good stuff when we see each other at conventions. This time was no exception, she brought me a jar of Blue Chair’s apple-meyer lemon marmalade.

Blue Chair is an artisnal jam company located in Oakland, they even have their own cookbook. And while I could just eat this lovely marmalade on toast, I thought why not bake with it and why not incorporate Hello Kitty!

ingredients:
pie dough (recipe, here)
marmalade
egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 Tablespoon water)
lemon sugar (recipe here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats.

Roll out the dough to about 3/8″ thick. You want to make sure you get the impression of the cutter into the dough. Cut out the forms, remember you will need two per pie.

Place the cut-outs on a silpat lined baking sheet. Place one teaspoon of marmalade in the middle of the dough cut-outs.

Check out the chunkiness, so much sweet tart flavor! It reminds me of Hawaiian lemon peel.

Place another pie cut-out on top and seal the edges. Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash…

…and sprinkle with a little lemon sugar. This will give it a sweet crunch. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven, until the dough is cooked through.

Let cool on a wire rack.

Sweet, tart, crunchy AND adorable!

Broken Glass Jell-o Pie (recipe here)

Mac ‘n’ Cheese Pie (recipe here)

Captain America Apple Hand-Pies (recipe here)

Nutella Strawberry ‘Pi’ on a stick (recipe here)

Mini Chicken Pot Pies (recipe here)

Hand pies are little individual pies that well, you can eat with your hands! But why have regular hand pies when you can eat one in the shape of Captain America’s face??

When the Marvel cookie cutters came out my mind was filled with ideas for recipes…and none of them had to do with cookies. Williams Sonoma, I’ve got to hand it to you. First Star Wars and now Marvel, I feel like my culinary nerd life is complete.

I decided to take good ol’ Cap and make very American apple pies out of him. This recipe is so easy, it’s barely a recipe.

The kids were thrilled to see Cap in pie form and loved the taste of these individual sweet hand pies even more!

ingredients:
pie dough (recipe, here)
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, chopped into 1/2″ pieces
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold butter, chopped into tiny shards

egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 Tablespoon water)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep baking sheets with silpats.

I always keep extra pie dough in the freezer and defrost it for emergencies such as this. The best kind of emergencies – pie emergencies.

These cutters are amazing – they don’t stick to dough and look at that detail! There’s even a cleft in Steve Rogers chin!!

Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. I like mine fairly thin so that it can still have room to stretch. The Marvel cookie cutters are great because they make a nice impression and generally don’t stick to doughs. If the dough gets too soft, put it in the fridge for a few minutes.

The beauty of the smallness of these pies is that you don’t even have to pre-cook the filling! The apples will bake and bubble perfectly all on their own in the oven.

Half of the cut outs will be the back side. Flip them over. On each one place about 2 teaspoons of chopped apples (these cutters are SMALL thus the small amount of filling). On top of that put a few shards of butter and sprinkle about 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar. That’s it! I’m serious. This couldn’t be easier!

Now take the other Cap faces and place them carefully on top of the filling. Push the edges to close, no need for pinching, just press firmly – you don’t want to ruin his face.

Place the pies on the baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes, depending on your oven, until just browned. Let cool on a wire rack.

With just a few ingredients for filling you’ll be surprised at how tasty these are!

I tend to get along with Jen(n)s, a lot of them are my customers based on my company/blog name – but more than that Jennie and I were very similar. We both had young kids, we both were all about cooking healthy for our kids and we both shared a love of farmer’s markets. We also had the same minimalist design aesthetic which came in handy for the cake competition! After the trip I kept up with her on twitter and her blog.

A few days ago her husband Mikey died of a sudden heart attack, no warning, no time to say goodbye. I was devastated for her. Jennie posted that on August 12 she wanted people to make Peanut Butter Pie – Mikey’s favorite, and “share it with someone you love.” (Check out all the people who supported and participated on twitter with the hastag: #apieformikey)

I took her recipe and made it into cupcakes, so that I could share it even more easily. The kids and I are going to take them to our weekly family dinner at O.G.’s house. Slow down, take it all in – and cherish the ones you love today.

Individual Peanut Butter Pies
(adapted from Jennifer Perillo’s recipe, here)

8 ounces chocolate cookies
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Prep a cupcake pan with high-sided liners.

I used Trader Joe’s chocolate filled JoJos. By just smashing them up, cream filling and all, you don’t even need to add butter to make a proper crust.

Put them in a bag, smash with a rolling pin until you get a crumb. Press the cookie crumb mixture into the bottoms of the cupcake liners.

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. Pour evenly into each liner over the cookie crust. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts on top. Place in the fridge.

In the bowl of an electric mixer whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.

In a separate bowl of the electric mixer cream the cream cheese and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Mix well until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth.

Fold in the whipped cream until combined.

Pour evenly on top of the cookie/peanut mixture into each of the cupcake liners. Let set in the the fridge overnight before serving.

These were made for Pi Day. 3.14. March 14. Hello? Is this thing on?

I went to an awesomely nerdy ‘Pi Day’ party, I brought a savory Mac ‘n’ Cheese pie, but I also wanted to bring something sweet…with a nerdy touch. Plus everything tastes better on a stick.

ingredients:
pie dough
strawberries, cut into small pieces
nutella
egg for egg wash

sticks

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Make or buy your pie dough – roll it out and cut out circles using a 2-1/2″ biscuit cutter.

Place the discs on a silpat lined baking sheet. Press the popsicle sticks into the dough so that they’ll stay put when baking.

Mmm. Nutella. My favorite. I’d eat this for breakfast EVERY morning when I lived in Italy. Perfect on a piece of crispy toast.

Place the cut strawberries in the center of the discs. Add a dollop of nutella in the center and place another disc of dough on top. pinch the edges closed – just a warning, liquid is bound to ooze out.

Now I took it one step further and made them super nerdy. I printed out a “PI” symbol, then cut it out for a template.

I then placed it over rolled out pie dough and using a clean x-acto, cut out the dough. Place the pi symbol on top of your little pies.

Brush the tops with an egg wash: on egg, beaten with a few Tablespoons of water.

Bake the pies for 12-15 minutes until browned then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

A perfectly nerdy treat for the nerdiest day of the year!

This pie recipe came to me in a dream. I know this decadence is absolutely unnecessary, but I figure if you’re going to fill a pie, just fill it with gold. Pure, cheesy gold. I made this for Pi Day. Get it? 3.14, March 14?!? Ok, you get it.

ingredients:
1 pound small pasta (elbows or shells)
2 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1-1/2 cups cheddar or jack cheese

Pie dough

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta according to package. Drain. DO NOT rinse.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and ready a pie pan laying down the pie dough for the bottom. You can make it from scratch (recipe, here) or buy it. Whatever makes you happy. I keep a bunch in my freezer and just roll it out as needed. Set aside.

In a saucepan, melt the 2 Tablespoons of butter over medium heat, add the flour and stir constantly until combined – cooking through for about 2 minutes.

Add the milk and heavy cream and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes, take off the heat and add the mustard, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add the cheese and stir until thickened and combined.

Mix the pasta with the cheese sauce and pour into the pie pan on top of the dough.

Cover with a second rolled out pie dough. You can pinch the edges, I also like to use a fork and just go around the outside.

Brush the top of the dough with an egg wash and sprinkle with just a touch of sea salt. Cut a little slit in the center to let out some of the steam. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes until browned. Let cool slightly and serve.

Important step: don’t let your child try and steal the pie while you are taking pictures.

These are LITTLE. I made them for kid’s sized hands, so you know they are small. But they were just enough for a meal or possibly and hors d’ouvres for a normal sized person.

ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
salt
pepper

pie dough (recipe, here)
1 egg
water
salt
pepper

If you’ve made your pie dough ahead like I do, bring it out to defrost a little while you make the filling.

In a skillet, heat the olive oil and saute the onion and the garlic until soft. Add the ground beef and cook until just no longer pink.

Add the paprika, worcestershire sauce and tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until the flavors are combined. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prep a baking sheet with a silpat.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out your pie dough. I like to make it about 1/4 inch thick, thin enough so it’s not so dough-y but thick enough to hold in the filling. Using a 3″ biscuit cutter, cut out rounds and place on a silpat lined baking sheet. For every one – cut another one – that will become the top part of the pie.

On the bottom cut out use a Tablespoon+ and put the filling down in the middle. Add a second cut out on top and use your fingers to press the seams together. You can also use a fork to put tine marks along the sides.

I like to decorate the tops for kicks, too. For these I cut out teeny little dough hearts and placed one on top of each of the hand pies.

Now in a small bowl, whisk together the egg and about one tablespoon of water. Brush the tops of the hand pies with the egg wash to give it a nice brown when it’s baking. Sprinkle the tops with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Once you have them all assembled, bake for 12-15 minutes. Let them cool a bit on wire racks, about a minute, you just don’t want steaming hot filling to come out and burn your mouth. Then plate and serve warm.

The kids liked that these were ‘their size’ and of course the Kid devoured the pastry first, while the Baby gutted the pie of all the meat filling. At least they both agreed it was cute and tasty!

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
4 – 6 tablespoons ice water

Now if you are using a food processor, this is how you do it: pulse the flour, sugar and salt then add in the butter, and pulse until crumbly.Add the water and in the tube while the processor is running, pour it in and keep pulsing until it is combined.

I have a food processor. I never use it. I’m Amish-like-that, yo. I don’t know, I just prefer to do things by hand. You can do this exactly the same way with a bowl and a pastry cutter and a whole lotta time. It takes time. But at the end you will have arms of steel.

You can use this immediately or wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for later.

The Kid is off of school for a whole week. A WEEK?? I never got a week off when I was a kid!! Must. Find. Things. To. Do.

I thought an easy and fun thing to do together would be to make a pie. A S’mores pie. Is your mouth watering? The Kid loves all things marshmallow so why not kick up a bit?

Sure it’s a reach, but the components are there: graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate. I threw this together on the fly this morning and it came out just as I had hoped. Believe it or not, the bittersweet chocolate cuts the sweet – but boy is it rich…n the best possible way.

ingredients:
Graham Cracker Pie crust (see recipe here)
20 large marshmallows
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
Pinch of salt
1 Teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 powdered sugar

Prep your graham cracker crust and set aside. Get a small sous chef to count out 20 marshmallows. Tell him it’s a FUN game. That’s how you get things done.

In a double boiler (witness my janky do it yourself version) heat the marshmallows till they get a little melty. Add the chocolate, then the cream. until it’s all combined. Keep stirring, it may take a while.

Note: Scharffenberger is king of chocolate. You won’t find a richer, smoother chocolate to work with. This 6 ounce bar melts down to a little bit of heaven and really makes all the difference in flavor.

Once everything is melted, add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool for a few minutes.

In the bottom of the pie crust sprinkle around the marshmallows. (Note: the Kid helped and I just let him do what he wanted, so we just mixed them in instead.) On top of the marshmallows and pie crust, pour the chocolate mixture, then put in the fridge to set.

When you are ready to serve, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar and serve with the pie. So good it will make you cry.

ingredients:
approx. 25 graham crackers (you’re trying to get about 1-1/2 cups or so)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 Tablespoons sugar

In a sealed plastic freezer bag, bash, beat, pulverize the graham crackers.

Get a small child to do the dirty work and combine the crumbs with the melted butter and the sugar – then press into your pie pan.

Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes, let cool before you use it.