**The Art of Pie Making: A Versatile Recipe with Endless Possibilities**

As we begin our journey into the world of pie making, it's essential to understand that this recipe can be transformed into various delicious pies with minimal effort. In this article, we'll delve into the process of creating these mini pies and explore the different variations we can make using a single crust recipe.

To start, we need to prepare our ingredients. We'll need 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, melted. In a separate bowl, we'll mix together 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 1 large egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. This is the foundation of our pie filling, and it's essential to get it right.

Now that we have our ingredients ready, let's move on to assembling our pies. We'll place a small amount of the crust mixture into each shell, making sure to press it evenly and firmly. Next, we'll add a few white chocolate chips and some macadamia nuts for added texture and flavor. The key is to balance the flavors and textures in each pie without overpowering them.

Moving on to our next variation, the Maple Walnut Tarts, we'll use a similar approach but with a few tweaks. We'll substitute two tablespoons of corn syrup with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, giving our filling a richer, more complex flavor profile. The addition of walnuts provides a delightful crunch and texture contrast that complements the sweetness of the maple syrup perfectly.

For our final pie, the Salted Peanut Tart topped with caramel, we'll use the same crust recipe but add some salt to balance out the sweetness of the caramel. This combination may sound unusual, but trust us when we say it's a game-changer. The salty, nutty flavor pairs beautifully with the sweet, sticky caramel.

**The Art of Decorating and Serving**

Now that our pies are complete, let's talk about the fun part – decorating and serving them. We'll use a small heart-shaped stencil to add a touch of elegance to each pie. A light dusting of icing sugar adds a beautiful sheen to the surface, while a drizzle of maple syrup creates a visually appealing pattern.

To serve our pies, we can either place them on their own or arrange them in a decorative pattern. The key is to present them in a way that showcases their beauty and makes each bite feel like a special occasion. And speaking of special occasions, we'll be serving our pies at a lovely gathering next week.

**The Importance of Technique and Practice**

While this recipe may seem straightforward, it's essential to remember that technique and practice are key to mastering the art of pie making. In our case, we had a minor setback with the crust breaking, but we were able to salvage the situation and still enjoy delicious pies.

To avoid similar mishaps in the future, make sure to use high-quality ingredients and take your time when assembling the pies. Practice makes perfect, so don't be discouraged if your first attempts at making these pies don't turn out exactly as you hoped. With time and practice, you'll develop the skills and confidence needed to create stunning pies that will impress even the most discerning palates.

**The Versatility of Pie Making**

One of the beautiful things about pie making is its versatility. This single recipe can be transformed into countless variations, each with its unique flavor profile and texture combination. Whether you're a seasoned baker or just starting out, this recipe provides endless opportunities for creativity and experimentation.

From the classic white chocolate macadamia nut to the salted peanut tart topped with caramel, each pie offers a distinct experience that's sure to delight your taste buds. The best part? You can make these pies ahead of time, freeze them, and enjoy them whenever you want – making it perfect for busy lives or special occasions.

In conclusion, pie making is an art form that requires patience, practice, and a willingness to experiment with new flavors and techniques. With this recipe as our starting point, we've demonstrated the versatility and adaptability of pie making, showcasing how one simple crust can be transformed into countless delicious pies.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome back to how to cake it happy pie day I mean this is one of my favorite days of the year and I'd like to say thank you to our friends at so yummy for sponsoring this video today I'm going to be using this so yummy portable Bella blender it's lightweight it is adorable we look good together it just has one button it's really simple to use and the cap you can make like a smoothie I'm not doing that today I'm making pie but you could just open the C and drink your smoothie and I've seen blenders like this that are over $60 this one is $24.99 at Target so you know what that means I'm going to have to cross the border and go to Target but to all of you who live in a city with a Target then go check out the so yummy products I will have to wait but I have one now so let's make pie this is a very simple pastry recipe I love it it's versatile you're going to find that out but it's just a half a cup of unsalted butter at room temperature 1/4 of a cup of granulated sugar a cup of all all purpose flour and then one egg yolk I normally make this dough or pastry in a mixer but you can make it by hand as well I haven't made anything by hand in a very long time butter and sugar have fully combined we can work in the flour and then you don't want to stir as vigorously otherwise you will be wearing it and then to finish off the dough we are going to add one egg yolk now what I want to do is gather the dough into a bowl and chill it in some plastic okay so this one is the plain dough I'm going to make the exact same thing but a maple version so what I've done here same exact ingredients but I swapped out the 1/4 of a cup of granulated sugar for a/4 of a cup of maple sugar oh it smells so good okay so we're just going to Pat it down wrap it up and chill it now I'm going to make the chocolate version of this pastry which requires two swap outs so again instead of granulated sugar or maple sugar there's 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar and then with our 1 cup of flour we're only going to do 3/4 of a cup and we're going to replace the last qu of a cup with cocoa of course you can make this in a mixer but I wanted to make a recipe that anyone could make on pie B okay so now we're going to add our one egg yolk doesn't this smell so good it smells so chocolaty already need to make sure it's all together deal so the dough has been chilled this is my first batch the plain dough I'm going to make the first set of Pies in a little tar shell what we can do is we can roll the bottom directly on the bottom of the tarte shell dividing the dough now I'm just going to press it out it's a lot like almost like a sugar cookie dough so it does sort of crack and crumble as you're spreading it but do not worry it comes to together just a little bit of flour on the top that was more than a little bit but it's going to be all right hold up the bottom and trim away the excess all the way around looks good two now I'm going to work on filling in the sides of the tart shells so what I like to do is just roll my dough into a bit of a cord and then we'll press it into the tart shell and at this point you're going to press it into the sides and then I like to use my pinky and just press make sure the corner is pressed down as well otherwise you get a lot of extra dough in that corner nothing againsts extra dough and we're going to use our knife again to cut the pastry the excess pastry away flush with the tart shell so as you can see I have three beautiful tarte shells made with the plain doughe and I used this removable bottom tar pan to create each one of these and these are going to be filled with white chocolate and macadamia nuts okay now moving on to the maple dough and we're going to bake these Tarts in a different pie dish they're all going to be in a different shape just to show you how versatile it is so this is the tricky part you're going to feel like it's cracking which it is but it's okay you can just press it into the mold you can actually just press all of the dough in in you're just less likely to get an even base so I like to pre-roll it and then press these four Tarts are made with my maple dough they're going to be filled with a maple walnut filling Canadian okay this dough feels a little more tender with the cocoa but it works in the very same way so this is like a traditional pie plate but mini and same idea we're just going to press the dough then I'm going to trim away the excess from the side as opposed to the top because this has a lip I kind of want to add a little detail to this one so I'm just going to use a fork isn't it cute like usually a store bot Pie has these or the edges are crimped but for this type of dough crimping won't work and last but not least these chocolate tarte shells in the mini pie pan are going to be filled with a salty peanut filling with a hint of caramel now we're going to make the filling for our beautiful Tarts the ingredients are pretty much the same for each chart there's a slight alteration in the maple one but it consists of two eggs a half a cup of corn syrup a half a cup of brown sugar 1/4 of a cup of butter melt Ed completely and then a half a teaspoon of vanilla and we're going to make this in a blender a very simple blender with only one button now we're just going to screw the lid on here we go easyest pie see what I did okay this is the fun part so I'm going to place some macadamia nuts in each shell why am I using two hands like it's so morning what's wrong with me and I'm also going to place a few white chocolate C you can use white chocolate chips and now because of this spout we're going to pour our filling right on top so I'm going to drizzle it I don't want the nuts and the chocolate chips to move to the side and you're going to just make sure it's full right up to the top you're going to start to see air bubbles rise in the filling but that's fine they will disappear when we're baking off to the oven we go slowly I'm moving on to my maple walnut Tarts same ingredients except I've subbed out two tablespoons of the corn syrup and I'm going to replace it with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup okay here we go here we go again this chart of course has walnuts so just plop them in not plop them in place them nicely into the tart now moving on to the final tart this is going to be the salted peanut tart topped with caramel I already know I like it and they're back oops be gentle with your pies so these are the macadamia white chocolate little mini pies I'm going to take them out of the shell this is fairly easy if you have trouble you can use a blow torch and just sort of heat up the outside or if you don't have a blow torch you can hold it over the element of your stove top just for a moment now we have to remember to take off the bottom so you can see seems like it's adhered you could just find a little spot where you can slip a spatula through they smell so yummy I'm just going to sprinkle on a little bit of icing sugar so I cut out a little heart just on a piece of paper and I'm going to use that as a stencil in the middle of each pie all right Tada now I have my maple walnut pies in this beautiful fluted pan these are a bit easier and as I say that they're not acting easy okay see what I mean so with these what I want to do is brush on a little maple syrup and make them look glossy and now I'm going to add just a little maple sugar along one Edge you think I should do it all the way around I don't know I'm going to do it halfway all right maple walnut I think this one's going to be my favorite this is the salted peanut I don't know what to call it it's like a title salted peanut peanut butter caramel I'm just going to flip them over gently this will just help to melt the butter within the crust and hopefully the pie plate will let go come on oh see that you can see it you see how like it's glistening that's butter oh no I don't want to break the beautiful crust and I think I did I say as I said it I broke the beautiful crust I'm so upset with myself I'm sad on pie day okay so lesson learned I think I should have greased these pie pans they're not as high quality as the other two and I think if I had greased the edges that would have really helped but it's okay there's always a work around since I want these pies to look the same I'm going to cut off the beautiful crust I'm so sorry now it's time for the good stuff I'm going to add caramel to these Tarts okay this is my favorite part I'm going to clean up I'm going to take some beautiful video of these and then I'm going to eat them time to taste these pies so let's dig it I'm going to start with the white chocolate macadamia nut pie M so yummy maple walnut I'm very excited this one is really good and I know a lot of people think Maple's too sweet but real maple syrup is not as sweet as you think it's really good and I still have a third one I'm eating this one last cuz of the chocolate M this one is the most decadent and it has that salty sweet flavor that I love but really all these pies are good and I wanted to make this video to show you how versatile one recipe can be so baking doesn't always have to be difficult and timec consuming you can make the crust by hand ahead of time and you can whip up your filling in this so yummy portable blender and there you have it pie day um I'm going to see you guys next week we don't need this anymore rightwelcome back to how to cake it happy pie day I mean this is one of my favorite days of the year and I'd like to say thank you to our friends at so yummy for sponsoring this video today I'm going to be using this so yummy portable Bella blender it's lightweight it is adorable we look good together it just has one button it's really simple to use and the cap you can make like a smoothie I'm not doing that today I'm making pie but you could just open the C and drink your smoothie and I've seen blenders like this that are over $60 this one is $24.99 at Target so you know what that means I'm going to have to cross the border and go to Target but to all of you who live in a city with a Target then go check out the so yummy products I will have to wait but I have one now so let's make pie this is a very simple pastry recipe I love it it's versatile you're going to find that out but it's just a half a cup of unsalted butter at room temperature 1/4 of a cup of granulated sugar a cup of all all purpose flour and then one egg yolk I normally make this dough or pastry in a mixer but you can make it by hand as well I haven't made anything by hand in a very long time butter and sugar have fully combined we can work in the flour and then you don't want to stir as vigorously otherwise you will be wearing it and then to finish off the dough we are going to add one egg yolk now what I want to do is gather the dough into a bowl and chill it in some plastic okay so this one is the plain dough I'm going to make the exact same thing but a maple version so what I've done here same exact ingredients but I swapped out the 1/4 of a cup of granulated sugar for a/4 of a cup of maple sugar oh it smells so good okay so we're just going to Pat it down wrap it up and chill it now I'm going to make the chocolate version of this pastry which requires two swap outs so again instead of granulated sugar or maple sugar there's 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar and then with our 1 cup of flour we're only going to do 3/4 of a cup and we're going to replace the last qu of a cup with cocoa of course you can make this in a mixer but I wanted to make a recipe that anyone could make on pie B okay so now we're going to add our one egg yolk doesn't this smell so good it smells so chocolaty already need to make sure it's all together deal so the dough has been chilled this is my first batch the plain dough I'm going to make the first set of Pies in a little tar shell what we can do is we can roll the bottom directly on the bottom of the tarte shell dividing the dough now I'm just going to press it out it's a lot like almost like a sugar cookie dough so it does sort of crack and crumble as you're spreading it but do not worry it comes to together just a little bit of flour on the top that was more than a little bit but it's going to be all right hold up the bottom and trim away the excess all the way around looks good two now I'm going to work on filling in the sides of the tart shells so what I like to do is just roll my dough into a bit of a cord and then we'll press it into the tart shell and at this point you're going to press it into the sides and then I like to use my pinky and just press make sure the corner is pressed down as well otherwise you get a lot of extra dough in that corner nothing againsts extra dough and we're going to use our knife again to cut the pastry the excess pastry away flush with the tart shell so as you can see I have three beautiful tarte shells made with the plain doughe and I used this removable bottom tar pan to create each one of these and these are going to be filled with white chocolate and macadamia nuts okay now moving on to the maple dough and we're going to bake these Tarts in a different pie dish they're all going to be in a different shape just to show you how versatile it is so this is the tricky part you're going to feel like it's cracking which it is but it's okay you can just press it into the mold you can actually just press all of the dough in in you're just less likely to get an even base so I like to pre-roll it and then press these four Tarts are made with my maple dough they're going to be filled with a maple walnut filling Canadian okay this dough feels a little more tender with the cocoa but it works in the very same way so this is like a traditional pie plate but mini and same idea we're just going to press the dough then I'm going to trim away the excess from the side as opposed to the top because this has a lip I kind of want to add a little detail to this one so I'm just going to use a fork isn't it cute like usually a store bot Pie has these or the edges are crimped but for this type of dough crimping won't work and last but not least these chocolate tarte shells in the mini pie pan are going to be filled with a salty peanut filling with a hint of caramel now we're going to make the filling for our beautiful Tarts the ingredients are pretty much the same for each chart there's a slight alteration in the maple one but it consists of two eggs a half a cup of corn syrup a half a cup of brown sugar 1/4 of a cup of butter melt Ed completely and then a half a teaspoon of vanilla and we're going to make this in a blender a very simple blender with only one button now we're just going to screw the lid on here we go easyest pie see what I did okay this is the fun part so I'm going to place some macadamia nuts in each shell why am I using two hands like it's so morning what's wrong with me and I'm also going to place a few white chocolate C you can use white chocolate chips and now because of this spout we're going to pour our filling right on top so I'm going to drizzle it I don't want the nuts and the chocolate chips to move to the side and you're going to just make sure it's full right up to the top you're going to start to see air bubbles rise in the filling but that's fine they will disappear when we're baking off to the oven we go slowly I'm moving on to my maple walnut Tarts same ingredients except I've subbed out two tablespoons of the corn syrup and I'm going to replace it with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup okay here we go here we go again this chart of course has walnuts so just plop them in not plop them in place them nicely into the tart now moving on to the final tart this is going to be the salted peanut tart topped with caramel I already know I like it and they're back oops be gentle with your pies so these are the macadamia white chocolate little mini pies I'm going to take them out of the shell this is fairly easy if you have trouble you can use a blow torch and just sort of heat up the outside or if you don't have a blow torch you can hold it over the element of your stove top just for a moment now we have to remember to take off the bottom so you can see seems like it's adhered you could just find a little spot where you can slip a spatula through they smell so yummy I'm just going to sprinkle on a little bit of icing sugar so I cut out a little heart just on a piece of paper and I'm going to use that as a stencil in the middle of each pie all right Tada now I have my maple walnut pies in this beautiful fluted pan these are a bit easier and as I say that they're not acting easy okay see what I mean so with these what I want to do is brush on a little maple syrup and make them look glossy and now I'm going to add just a little maple sugar along one Edge you think I should do it all the way around I don't know I'm going to do it halfway all right maple walnut I think this one's going to be my favorite this is the salted peanut I don't know what to call it it's like a title salted peanut peanut butter caramel I'm just going to flip them over gently this will just help to melt the butter within the crust and hopefully the pie plate will let go come on oh see that you can see it you see how like it's glistening that's butter oh no I don't want to break the beautiful crust and I think I did I say as I said it I broke the beautiful crust I'm so upset with myself I'm sad on pie day okay so lesson learned I think I should have greased these pie pans they're not as high quality as the other two and I think if I had greased the edges that would have really helped but it's okay there's always a work around since I want these pies to look the same I'm going to cut off the beautiful crust I'm so sorry now it's time for the good stuff I'm going to add caramel to these Tarts okay this is my favorite part I'm going to clean up I'm going to take some beautiful video of these and then I'm going to eat them time to taste these pies so let's dig it I'm going to start with the white chocolate macadamia nut pie M so yummy maple walnut I'm very excited this one is really good and I know a lot of people think Maple's too sweet but real maple syrup is not as sweet as you think it's really good and I still have a third one I'm eating this one last cuz of the chocolate M this one is the most decadent and it has that salty sweet flavor that I love but really all these pies are good and I wanted to make this video to show you how versatile one recipe can be so baking doesn't always have to be difficult and timec consuming you can make the crust by hand ahead of time and you can whip up your filling in this so yummy portable blender and there you have it pie day um I'm going to see you guys next week we don't need this anymore right\n"