For the first part of this year, my sisters and I spent our Saturday mornings vending at the Ankeny Farmers’ Market.
Our farmers market business is called Shades of Green. We sell organic jam and jellies, freshly milled baked goods, chemical free produce, and other natural products. However, with the extreme heat we’ve been experiencing in Iowa, we decided to take a break until next year.
I had a lot of fun on Saturday mornings. I looked forward to the cool, crisp dew while spending time with my sisters, sipping on Starbucks, and chatting with people about natural foods.
Since people are on the go, I enjoyed coming up with “healthier” versions of popular treats.
Muffins, granola bars, cobblers, and mini pies were my specialty.
Everything I made was in season so people enjoyed coming to us each week to find out what flavors of pie we had for that morning.
As the weeks went by, I came to realize that not many people understood the quality of ingredients I was serving them. Freshly milled organic grains, organic fruit, organic sugar, even Real Salt.
However, it gave me the opportunity to chat and make friends in the process.
Since I no longer have to make dozens of these mini pies for the weekend, I decided to whip some up to share with you. People love them as they can peel the liner and eat them on the go.
For this particular batch I decided to use sweet bing cherries highlighted by cardamom. A sweet and aromatic Middle Eastern spice that I enjoy using in baked goods.
Since I don’t have a cherry pitter, I use a pastry tip to pop the pits out.
I roll out pre-made pate brisee (pie dough) and cut out a 3″ diameter circle to use as the bottom crust for each mini pie. I then place them into cupcake liners and fill with the sweet cherry cardamom mixture.
To serve as the top crust, I use a fondant cutter to cut out a cute shape from more pie dough. I finish by brushing the top crust with egg white and sprinkle with organic sugar.
They make a cute presentation and you can fill them with any fruit mixture that you’d like. I can’t wait to make mini apple pies later this year.
Mini, sweet cherry cardamom pies baked in cupcake liners. People love them as they can peel the liner and eat them on the go.
Ingredients:
- 1 recipe pate brisee
- 4 cups cherries (this is whole and with pits)
- 1/2 cup organic sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- juice of 1/2 lemon
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 375F.
- Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
- Pit the cherries.
- In a bowl, add the cherries, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, and cardamom. Squeeze half a lemon into the mixture and mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Set aside
- Roll out one pie dough crust. Cut out twelve, 3" diameter circles. (You'll get about nine initially. Combine the scraps of extra dough, roll it out, and cut out three more circles)
- Push each circle into the bottom of a cupcake liner. Make sure to patch up any tears.
- Fill each mini pie with enough filling so that it heaps. The fruit filling will condense down in the oven. Set aside in the refrigerator.
- Roll out another pie dough crust. Using any cookie cutter, cut out a shape to serve as your top crust.
- Place on top of each mini pie. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with organic sugar.
- Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes.
I can’t wait to share some of my other great selling farmers’ market treats.
What’s your favorite farmers market treat to eat on the go?
I’m linking this post to Coffee Friday Party and Eat, Make, Grow.
That’s awesome! I made my own version of this mini pie for Josiah’s birthday this year. Great minds. 🙂
Hi Diana! YAY! I love your post and it’s perfect for Coffee Friday! Thanks for linking up… hopefully you’ll link it back to us too… just so more people join the party 😉
Happy Friday!
By the way… I totally pinned this!
Those look delicious! I’m going to have to try this one.
Yum!! I know cherries won’t be in season when we arrive at the end of August, but I’ll get some frozen ones and TOTALLY making these for our travels. I am also thinking of raspberry & blueberries 🙂
You know me… cherry pie is my favorite 😉
Diana,
Thanks for linking to our first Eat Make Grow Blog Hop! You always have the prettiest images of your food. I’m intrigued by the use of cardamom as the seasoning. I have a cherry relish for roast pork recipe and I bet cardamom would be an interesting twist. Next time I make it I will give it a go.
We are already on to Blog Hop #2. I hope you’ll come and link to that one as well. Feel free to link to any older posts if you think they are timely and pertinent.
– Foy
http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/2012/08/eat-make-grow-thursday-blog-hop-2.html
I love cardamom and cherries separately! Now I must use them together!