Mini S'mores Pie

Hello and Happy Pi Day!

I’ve never actually ever celebrated Pi day, but for some reason, this year I was motivated! I even made a pie to celebrate. Well, I guess you could call it a pie or a tort… or you can call it what I call it: “good”.

Yes, I saw this s’mores pie on The Pastry Affair and it looked delicious, and plus it’s a s’more… in a pan… need I say more? No? Good.

So, onwards. My family is not a big pie family. Well my parents like fruit pies, and I like the creamy/custard/anything-but-fruit pies, and my sister… I think the closest she gets to a pie is a Poptart. So when these little s’more pies were gone within a day, I knew something was right.

The filling was definitely the best part in my opinion. It was like mousse; creamy, soft, delicate, and any other adjective that describes a good mousse. It was just perfect. But I think next time I may opt for a milk chocolate, instead of semi-sweet, just for a little more sweetness.

The crust I used was unorthodox. I know when you think “s’mores” a picture of melty milk chocolate pressed next to a toasted gooey marshmallow and sandwiched between two honey graham crackers comes to mind. The thing is though, I wanted mini pies, and I couldn’t figure out a way to incorporate a graham cracker crust into the recipe. Sure I could have used store-bough mini graham cracker pie crusts, but I felt that those were way too big. So instead I opted for a flaky pie crust. And you know what? It actually worked well, I thought. This crust is delectably flaky, one of the best pie crusts I’ve come across.

And I can’t forget about the toasted marshmallow tops. I had about 1/5 of a bag of mini marshmallows in the pantry, so I used scissors to cut them in half and placed them all around the baked chocolate filling, set the pies under the broiler, and voilà! S’mores pie is served.

So celebrate, have a slice of some 3.141592…(that’s all I have memorized).

Mini S’mores Pie
Adapted from The Pastry Affair 
Crust from Adora’s Box    
Makes 6 mini pies (muffin sized)

Crust
Ingredients
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
4 tbsp cold butter, cubed
2 oz soft cream cheese

Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or you can use a food processor) beat the flour and butter until coarse crumbs form. Add in the cream cheese and beat until dough forms a ball, about 2 minutes. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. Place dough between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper, and roll as thin as you can get it. Use some kind or round object (4-4.5 in diameter) to cut out crusts. Re-roll dough and repeat until all the dough has been used up (there will be no scraps). You may need to re-refrigerate the dough between rolling sessions.
3. Place dough rounds into standard muffin tins. Set in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.  

Chocolate Filling
Ingredients
¼ cup + 2 tbsp whipping cream
¼ cup + 2 tbsp milk
5 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
Pinch of salt
1 egg, room temperature and beaten
¼ - ½ cup mini marshmallows cut in half

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Take the pie crusts out of the fridge.
2. Whisk the whipping cream and the milk in a medium sauce pan. Warm the liquid over medium-low heat. When the milk mixture has heated, stir in the chocolate. Keep stirring until all of the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is velvety smooth. Throw in a pinch of salt. Add in the beaten egg and whisk until mixture becomes smooth again. Be careful not to scramble the egg.
3. Pour chocolate mixture into a jug or something with a spout for easy pouring. Carefully fill the pie crusts with the chocolate filling, leaving a little room (about 1/3 inch) on top. Place on the middle rack and bake for about 15-17 minutes, or until the filling has set and does not giggle in the center.
4. Take mini pies out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Once cool, set the pies in the fridge for a few hours to finish setting. Once set, cover the tops of the pies with halved mini marshmallows and set under to broiler for 30seconds – 1 minute or until the marshmallows have been nicely toasted. Serve warm or cold, but I preferred mine warm. To warm, stick in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.