Friday is PIE DAY!

With the current giveaway happening, it seemed logical to feature a pie today that is made with MaryJane's organic budget mix. (She may have hinted too:) It really is an amazing and verstile mix, and I love knowing that everything in there is organic and good for me. Did you know that MaryJane had her own baking powder developed for the mix? I'm telling you, she gets it done.

I wanted to try my hand at making a somewhat traditional pie crust with the mix. With a few quick additions, I came up with a lovely dough that was very easy to handle. My pie today is a mini version, because honestly, we devoured a lot of pie this past week. I read a statistic recently claiming that the average pie consumption per person is 6 and 1/2 slices per year. Um. Yeah. We're waaaaaaaaay above that average.

*All of these quantities are for a 6" mini pie*

For the pie crust:

1 cup MaryJanes's organic budget mix
1 T sugar
4 T butter
3 T + 1 T cold water

-combine budget mix and sugar in medium bowl
-cut in butter with pastry cutter or 2 forks,
until mixture is crumbly and has pea sized lumps
-add water and mix with cutter until dough holds together
-knead with hands until dough forms smooth ball
-wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes

Rolls out easy!

A week or so ago, I made these super yummy sandwiches with fig jam.

The rest of the jam had been staring me in the face every time I opened the fridge door, just begging to be put into a pie. Today was the day to honor that desire. To avoid a pie full of sugary figgy sludge, I added a few things to the mix.

For the fig jam filling

1/2 cup dried apricots, diced (I snip mine into bits with scissors-easy!)

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1 cup fig jam

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 apple, thinly sliced (optional)

-combine apricots and orange juice in a small saucepan

-heat over medium low for 3 minutes, until apricots are plumped

-mix in fig jam and walnuts

-pour into prepared Budget Mix crust

-if using, layer apples slices on top

-flop (that is a technical term) extra crust edge over top

-bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

 I love doing this kind of crust because you get a top crust without as much work. I always call it "country style" or "rustic style" to make it sound romantic.............

In the interest of taste testing for all of you, I just took a big bite right out of the middle of the still very warm pie. Oh, yum. This crust is buttery and rich and vaguely shortcake like in manner. With the fig filling, it's like one giant divine fig newton. I could pour myself a glass of red wine, have a few more bites of this bad boy, and call it a Friday night. Dinner, who needs dinner?

Although.....I am making dinner indeed. My inspiration from MaryJane's mix was to make one sweet and one savory pie with it, so our dinner will be a pot pie of sorts.  I'll be sharing that recipe as well. If I don't get it posted tonight (because, believe me, that red wine is coming out), I'll share tomorrow!

Happy, happy PIE DAY!

Christine