Miniature Pies

I'm just going to say it. These won't make it in to any of those 'working-mother-of-four weeknight dinner' cookbooks.  They are a bit time consuming, especially when you make 24 (in addition to a bazillion side dishes). Overkill, you say, but I had 10 guests for Thanksgiving and over the course of the weekend we ate almost all of them.  Also, those 10 guests were my family. They love 1) dessert, 2) ice cream, 3) mini things.  So these were a hit. 

If you divide and conquer, it's really not that bad. I made Ina Garten's Crust the Sunday before Thanksgiving, rolled it out and pressed them into the jars (short, half-pint open-mouth jars).  I used the jar covers to cut out circles for the apple pie tops.  I covered everything and put them in the freezer.  Then on Wednesday I took the pies out, prepared the fillings, and baked them.  I mostly used the assembly instructions from here.  I made pumpkin, apple, and key lime for my variations (pumpkin and key lime crusts should pre-bake for 10 minutes at 375).  Total pies should bake for about 45-55 minutes. Enjoy (with ice cream!).