Pies in a jar

Pie is one of my favorite things to eat... but I usually don't have time to make them. So these are perfect, because you make several of them up, put them in the freezer & take one or two out and bake them -- each jar makes a single serving, perfect for that " midnight craving" You will need to use wide mouth 1/2 pint jars for these cute little treats. First make your pie crust, then roll it out about 1/4 inch thick and cut circles--these will be the tops. I use a wide mouth jar lid to cut out the circle. You need to use a very small cookie cutter to cut a shape out of each circle-- this will help vent the pie as it cooks.. you can see how I did this with a star & heart shape in the pictures below


next take a small amount of pie crust and form it into a ball, press it onto the bottom of the jar & continue to press it up the sides of the jar-- adding more crust pieces as needed. It doesn't need to be very thick. The pie crust should come up a little bit above the top of the jar, then you will have something to press the top pieces to-- they should look like this......


then you place some of your pie filling into the jars- you can use: apple, peach, berry or cherry filling. It takes about 1/2 C. of filling per jar. Then put the circle of pie crust on top & press together with a fork, make sure you press the crust down into the jar- so that it doesn't go over the top.


then you can place the cut out shape on top, leaving a little bit of a hole to help it vent as it bakes.... like I have done in these two pictures.


or if you want you can leave the top crust off & sprinkle a crumble topping on the top-- I used a cinnamon oat topping on some of the apple ones. Place lid & a ring onto each jar to seal them & place them into the freezer..... put a label on each jar so you will know what kind they are, unless you like to be surprised!


then when you are craving pie.. take them out of the freezer remove both the metal lid & the ring. Then place the jars onto a cookie sheet and put them into the oven. Turn the oven to 375 and bake for 50-60 minutes. Do not pre-heat the oven before placing the jars inside. Enjoy!!! They are sooo good with a scoop of ice cream on top! Oh Yumm