Crafting for Sanity

The title of this post says it all.  I craft for sanity.   It helps keep me sane or at least somewhat centered and grounded.  My goal  is to share a little of what I do; the good, the bad and the ugly.

My most recent adventure was making "Pies in a Jar".

   Aren't these stinking cute!

They are so easy to make and even better to eat!  I made cherry and apple.  Here is how I made them.

4oz Ball "freezer safe" jars

2 packages of ready made pie crust

pie filling of your choice

butter/margarine 

Sugar

Preheat your oven and a rimmed baking tray to 400.  Liberally butter the inside of the jars.  Using the rim of one jar cut out 12 circles of pie crust and place them on the bottoms of each jar.  

Using a pizza cutter, I started cutting out strips to make the sides of the pie and filled in areas with pieces of pie crust as needed.  Sorry but I forgot to take pictures of the process.

When I was placing the strips into the jar, I made sure that there was some overhang at the top for crimping. Now the fun part.  Fill each jar with approximately 4 tablespoons of your favorite pie filling.

Using the band that comes with each jar, cut out tops for your pie.  

Crimp the pie top and sides using your fingers or fork.  Cut four slits into the top of each pie.  Sprinkle with a little sugar.  I did a mix of cinnamon and sugar on the apple pies.

Place all your jars onto your preheated rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  When the 20 minutes are up, reduce the heat to 350 and carefully turn the rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes until light golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

The beauty of these little gems is that you can make these up and freeze them prior to baking.  All you need to do is place the lid and band on the jar and pop them into your freezer.  When baking from frozen, increase the baking time to 35-40 minutes when you reduce the temperature to 350.

Enjoy!