Strawberry Mini Pies Summer Recipe

A recipe to use those abundant fresh summer strawberries, these mini pies are so tasty and keep well in the fridge. The addition of ice cream and hot fudge sauce makes a decadent dessert.
strawberry mini pies

I thought I was going to have to call this post "How NOT to make strawberry mini pies" because I had some difficulty with them, which I'll explain below. In the end, they were SO good that I'll definitely be making them again, with a few modifications.

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Welcome to the July Pinterest Challenge, hosted by Cindy of County Road 407. We're a group of home decor and DIY bloggers who take on a new challenge each month. If you're coming from First Day of Home, welcome! I'm sure Crissy's strawberry cheesecake is divine! As you can see, this month we're veering away from our regular DIY and decor ideas and sharing recipes using fresh strawberries instead! It is summer after all! 🍓

Pinterest Challenge logo

Our strawberry recipe challenge is inspired by Lucinda's gorgeous image. Doesn't this image make you want to sink your teeth into those sun ripened berries?

fresh picked farm strawberries

Who doesn't love gorging on sweet and ripe strawberries during the summer? I love berries all year long, but their sweetness is certainly at its peak in the summer.

As far as desserts go, strawberry mini pies are right up our alley. We are a pie loving family. We don't do cake...we do pie! Mr DIY's favorite is my mom's Perfect Apple Pie Recipe and his mom's Fresh Strawberry Pie. We all love grandma's Chocolate Fudge Pie and we even love to make Cinnamon Pinwheel Cookies with leftover pie crust! Growing up, my mom made the best banana cream pie and I haven't had it in years. Going to have to remedy that soon 😋

But today I'm sharing a recipe for mini strawberry pies that I adapted from A Latte Food. I had never made small hand-size pies before and I found it a little bit challenging but they were so good that I quickly forgot how fussy they were! And I definitely plan to make them again soon, with some filling variations that I think will make them come together much quicker and easier (I'll share below).

How to Make Mini Strawberry Pies


Pie Crust Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup all purpose flour


Filling Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup finely diced strawberries
  • 2-3 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • zest of half a small lemon
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 heaping Tbsp cornstarch

Other

  • 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
  • powdered sugar (for rolling out crust)
Preheat oven to 350°
Add parchment paper to cookie sheet


Make the crust

This crust was new to me. I normally make my mom's super flaky pie crust using shortening or lard (or more often I use a store-bought crust), so the addition of the cream cheese was interesting. I mixed the butter and cream cheese together until it was fluffy, added the flour and mixed until it came together. I used my stand mixer, and it came together beautifully. Because it's so moist, the pie dough does need to be refrigerated for 30 min to firm up. Just wrap in plastic wrap and pop into the fridge.

Note: this is enough to make one single crust for a regular size pie

making the pie crust dough

Make the filling

Mix up the filling ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

mixing filling

Roll out dough

The cream cheese dough is very moist! I rolled mine to about 1/4" onto a large silpat mat that I have, and I used powdered sugar to dry it out a bit as I was rolling (you could also use flour). Because the dough is so moist, you can re-roll it multiple times without worrying about the pie crust getting overly dry. Definitely a plus!

Cut out rounds for mini pies

Don't make them too small! I love mini pies, but this is where I think I made my mistake. The dough rounds I cut out were so small that it was very difficult to wrap around the strawberry filling without everything wanting to just ooze out. I have a set of biscuit cutters (see similar here) and I should have used the largest one, rather than the one I chose to use.

nested biscuit cutters

Knowing that this is the most difficult part of making these mini pies, here are some tips you can try that will help to eliminate the ooze:

  • roll rounds larger
  • use 2 rounds of dough per mini pie (setting on top of each other so pies are round rather than half rounds) - you will need extra dough for this so plan on an extra batch
  • use jam rather than a runny filling made from fresh fruit to save both on assembly time and frustration (this is how I plan to make them in the future)

cutting out mini pie crust rounds

Re-roll all those pie crust scraps to get as many rounds as possible. I ended up with 15.


Assemble pies

Once the rounds are all rolled out and carefully placed on the cookie sheet, it's time to add the strawberry filling. Before doing so, drain filling in a colander to remove any excess juiciness, otherwise it will be difficult to seal the edges of the pie crust. Add about a tsp of filling to the dough, pull the edge over to the other side and crimp closed with a fork. Mine are a little too full 😕

add filling to rounds

Be sure to cut a small x in the top of the pies with a knife to allow steam to escape during baking. Brush tops of mini pies with egg wash (just a beaten egg) and sprinkle with sanding sugar if you want to get a little extra sparkle.

sanding sugar to sprinkle on top

Bake strawberry mini pies at 350° 30-35 minutes or until pies are golden brown. 

Your pies may look like this if you did what I did: namely, added too much filling to dough rounds that were too small!!! However, the pies released easily from the baking sheet, leaving all that sticky burnt stuff behind! Lesson learned!

baked pies

I sprinkled them with powdered sugar once they cooled, and they actually look edible now!

mini strawberry pies with powdered sugar

baked strawberry pies

As imperfect as they may look, these little 2 or 3 bite strawberry pies taste amazing! The crust is buttery and the filling isn't too sweet. The perfect taste of summer! But keep reading to see how we prefer to eat these mini pies...
3 bite strawberry mini pies
Vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce are the perfect compliment to the strawberry pies! If I had leftover strawberries, I would have chopped them up, sprinkled a little sugar over the top to release their juices, and added a spoonful on top of the ice cream, along with the hot fudge sauce! Decadent.

strawberry mini pies with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce

serving suggestions for strawberry mini pies

If you haven't tried baking mini pies before, please read all my tips and then do yourself (and your family a favor) and make these. Pronto! I'm excited to try them again with raspberry preserves, and I think Nutella would be amazing too! See how I updated this recipe for a no-fuss version here!

Like it? Pin it to Remember it! 🍓

strawberry mini pies over ice cream and hot fudge sauce
Make sure to head to Sweet Pea next and check out Paula's strawberry dream tart recipe! You can find links to all the other strawberry recipes below!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
What's your favorite strawberry dessert?


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Comments

  1. Your strawberry mini pies looks scrumptious and I can't wait to try your recipe.

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  2. Hi Cindy, These look great! Also, I appreciate your lessons and tips because most of my recipes go sideways. The powdered sugar is a great tip too to make them look pretty! Pinning! laura

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Laura! I'm relieved these turned out as well as they did, but I'll make them with jam from now on 😉

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  3. Well I learned 3 new things today! 1. That a pie crust could be so easy. I never knew it had cream cheese in it! 2. That Sanding Sugar was a thing. 3. I have to try this recipe! You make it look easy. Thank you for joining in. Pinned!

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    1. Thanks Cindy, aside from my runny filling, they were easy to make...and sooo good!

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  4. I love making hand pies because they make me feel like a real baker and they always look pretty! Can't wait to try your cream cheese piecrust. Pinning!

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    1. Haha, yes! Hope you enjoy them, the crust is amazing!

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  5. These look delicious, and they are so cute! I've pinned to try later AND followed you on Pinterest!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Niky @ The House on Silverado

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  6. The strawberry hand pies are adorable... but, I agree... I would make them a bit larger. Simply because 2 or three bites ain't gonna cut it in our family! LOL! Pinned, and always love doing these hops with you!

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    Replies
    1. Haha, I agree Julie... although 2 small pies with ice cream was the perfect size!

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  7. I love these mini pies, Cindy! They remind me of some empanadas that I like to make, but I’ve never tried strawberry filling. I would never have known about your baking challenges. They look perfectly delicious to me!

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    1. Thanks Crissy, I love any kind of pie and the handheld version is so fun!

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  8. Cindy, you may have had issues making your mini~pies, but they turned out so pretty. Baking is a science and an art. I’m always tweaking a recipe. Good for you for sticking with it.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Carol, you're absolutely right that baking is a science, and I almost always tweak recipes!

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  9. These are the cutest and sweetest little pies! They look so yummy and would be perfect for brunch! Pinned!

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  10. I can't decide if I want to look at how adorable they are or eat them! LOL! I'll do both. Yummy! Love that set of biscuit cutters.

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