(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best pie, tart & quiche pans

GF crust made with this recipe (from a Bette Hagman book) is indistinguishable from wheat pastry. I actually think it's better.

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I've made it and had people exclaim, "I thought you had to be gluten free? How can you eat this crust?"

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Also, I like to use a pie crust bag to roll out the dough, then put it in the fridge to help keep it together before putting it on the pie.

Unfortunately I realized, after taking the photos, that these look like ashtrays with little cigarette butts. Oh well. I would gladly eat a full ashtray if it tasted this awesome.

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Pretzel Tartlets

Makes six 4-inch mini tarts

I used this set of mini tart pans with removal bottoms. I made 4 tarts with this recipe but had leftover crust dough, caramel and ganache...I think you could easily get 6 tartlets.

For the crust
½ cup finely ground/crushed salted pretzels
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup flour

For the salted caramel

1 cup granulated sugar
6 Tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, chopped up
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fine salt

For the chocolate top
¾ cup dark chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
broken up pretzels pieces for sprinkling
sea salt flakes for sprinkling

1. Heavily grease the tartlet pans with removable bottoms. In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the ground pretzels and butter for 2 minutes on medium-high speed. Beat in the egg and vanilla for an additional minute. Lower the speed and add in the powdered sugar, cocoa, and flour, mixing until combined.
   
   
2. Remove dough from mixer and form it into a log and cut it into 6 equal chunks.
   Place dough between two large pieces of plastic wrap (or on a silicone mat with 1 sheet of plastic wrap on top) and roll out one dough chunk into a circle. Your circle should be ~1½ inches larger than the size of your tart pan, and about 1/8" thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap and carefully flip the dough into the tart pan. Press the dough into the pan, and use a knife to trim excess dough around the edge. Repeat with the remaining 5 dough pieces. Loosely cover all with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
   
   
3. While the dough chills, make the salted caramel:
   
   

• Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat-resistant rubber spatula. Over the course of about 10 minutes, the sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown liquid. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan as you stir so the sugar doesn't get stuck on and burn.
  
  
• Once sugar is completely melted, stir in the butter--this makes the caramel boil and churn and sizzle a bit. Continue to stir until the butter is completely melted and incorporated into the liquid sugar, about 2-3 minutes.
  
  
• Very slowly, drizzle in the heavy cream while stirring. Again, the mixture will bubble and splatter a bit.
  
  
• Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Pour into a glass jar or heat-resistant container and refrigerate until tart shells are done blind-baking.
  
  

4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Stab each tartlet shell with a fork a couple times. Line the dough with parchment paper and fill with dry beans, rice, or pie weights. (I, of course, had none so I formed discs out of foil and lined each one). Place all of the tartlet pans on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, then remove weights/parchment paper/foil and bake for an additional 5-8 minutes. Place in refrigerator to cool.
   
   
5. After the tartlet shells are cooled and solid, pour or spoon salted caramel into each shell, leaving about 1/4-1/8" at the top for the chocolate layer. Refrigerate the tartlets for 30 minutes.
   
   
6. Make the chocolate ganache layer:
   
   

• Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it's simmering, but not boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth and combined. Spoon the ganache onto each tartlet and spread it to the inside of the crusts edge, covering the caramel. Top with broken pretzel bits. Allow to cool completely in fridge for at least 2 hours, sprinkle with sea salt, and serve.

I have been loving a quick frittata lately. When I am busy I just use an individual pie pan and throw in some frozen broccoli and cheese, cover with egg whites from a carton and pop into the toaster oven for 30-40min at 375F (190C). I cover it in salsa and it's a great quick meal with minimal prep that I don't have to watch or be involved with while it cooks. On days I have more time I whisk real eggs and a bit of heavy cream as a base and add different spices and different veggies. For the best frittatas you precook the veggies on the stovetop then put the whole pan in the oven but I still like them the quick way.

Home goods (TJX) usually has oval aluminum or powder coated steel mini pie dishes in the baking section for like $4 for a 3 pack. Perfect for samples.

They look like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CMBM-4OPD-Piece-Oval-Steel/dp/B012F4TJCI/ref=asc_df_B012F4TJCI/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198068498826&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2807092416956209837&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9005934&hvtargid=pla-350912015018&psc=1

I was mostly making fun of the fact that they really aren't "pies", being extremely tiny. They aren't even as big as individual serving pies you can buy.

These are basically the size of muffins, which is why they cook so fast. If you want mini pies, use mini tins in the oven.
Even stuff like this have larger pies, if you REALLY want a pie maker, there are others with only 2 pies (larger)

There are some good suggestions here, for the future we use these:

Camping Pie Irons

The possibilities are endless we these things. usually we do pizza pies on them: sauce, cheese and pepperoni in between bread. They also work with canned pie filling pretty well too.

You mean like these? [I love baked goods. I am the baker in the house.]

https://www.amazon.com/MontoPack-Disposable-Aluminum-Foil-Tart/dp/B01EIPUX54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482900885&sr=8-1&keywords=disposable+5+inch+tart+pans

Ramble Rice ball mould Cute Small Ball Round Shape Rice Mold Lovely Expression Lunch Box Rice Moulds for Kids Mini Sushi Molds https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DBPL71C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XqHdBbBVVPK8B

Almost everything here is an aspic/jelly mold. The heart might be a tart or shortcake pan, and the round pan next to it is is a traditional shortcake pan like [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Zenker-Plated-Steel-Flan-11-Inch/dp/B004022VO2/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1452038450&sr=8-13&keywords=shortcake+pan). Think strawberry shortcake. When you flip it the ridge lip keeps macerated berries contained.

The perforated piece looks to be part of a steamer of some sort.

Hah, my brother is the creator of that pi pie pan! Will forward him this awesome pic of your pie -- he always likes seeing what people end up baking in it!

Edit: Here is a pic of my brother giving Stephen Wolfram a Pi Pie Pan today at SXSW's Pi Day Celebration!

Why not just get a 12 inch pan, and let the sides of the pan dictate the size?

With a bit of experimentation you could measure the exact amount of batter you need to get a thin and consistent crepe.

Then just swirl the pan around, or if you want it as thin as possible, use a technique like this...

https://youtu.be/Rl2XQO5SA6o?t=9

Trying to cookie cutter such a big circle with a chefs ring seems a bit clumsy to me, and then you still have to clean up any excess which got chopped off.

Also found this... not exactly right, but not far off...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matfer-E647-Plain-Flan-Ring/dp/B00237X7EE/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1480895339&sr=8-9

Last resort, try to contact a metal workshop in your area. Im sure they'd be able to bespoke you something

Here is one article from Southern Living. https://www.southernliving.com/desserts/pies/crustless-pie-recipes

The Hasselback apple "pie" is a fascinating idea.

Tart pans (https://www.amazon.com/HOMOW-Nonstick-Removable-Bottom-Quiche/dp/B01LL85MDE) make crustless pies and quiches easier to do.

I think you need to pay more attention to structure, either with the filling itself (as in the Hasselback apple idea) or with thickeners either cornstarch, flour, or gelatin. All of which lead me to think of aspic.... *grin*

It's a camp chef brand pie pan. I got for free when I saw in my neighbors garage in his scrap metal pile. It was all rusted and he bought it for his wife and she didnt like having to deal with seasoning and such. A day in an electric bath and it was good as new.

My mom got it for me as a gift. It looks like Amazon has it.

Some hosts swear by this makeup towel (which helps with laundry cause cosmetics are a bitch to get out)

I like to serve breakfast for my guests and make mini-quiches for them. This mini-pie baker makes individual quiches in 7 minutes and my guests adore them.

I bought myself this corkboard for the guest space - so that they can affix pins and show where they're from.

Pie Crust Weight Chain

The weights are chained together, making it easy to remove them without losing any.

It's a totally unneeded kitchen gadget which is exactly the kind of thing I've become a sucker for thanks to Amazon.

Thanks! I had gone the lazy way last time and used some boxed mix but that stuff ended up being awful and I couldn't even get it to work right. It was a total mess. I'd like to try again because even when it was a mess it was delicious, lol. I'm addicted to apple pie

3.01 was as close as I could get to pi.


I have a pie pan on my wish list.

A little over but this and this can go well together at $22.63

this is one of my favorite gadgets while camping. You can add taco things and close it in with tortillas or make grilled cheese with daiya or pizza pockets. You can even make apple pie by putting apple pie filling between some bread or a tortilla.

Here's a BGE forum with the same question: https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1175773/lets-see-some-cast-iron-that-fits-the-minimax

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TLDR: This is one of them

Or

If you want to stick to BGE Brand

Cook eggs in a plastic bag in boiling water.

Pre-make black bean burritos, wrap them in tinfoil, and freeze them.

Buy a pie-iron, and throw some pizza-pops in there, or all kinds of other things.

Get the pi pie pan! And make a pie. Yummmmmmm.

The Pi Pan that's on my Ultimate Pi WL

If it wasn't $25 I'd order it: http://www.amazon.com/Pi-People-Pie-Pan/dp/B00GTB1X8C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394297943&sr=8-1&keywords=pi+pie+pan