Blackberry Lime Pielettes

So, as promised, I've taken the pie on the cover of this month's Bon Appetit, adapted it, and turned it into pielettes!  I'll admit, this was much more of an undertaking than I had planned.  Got to try some new baking tactics - I've never done a wine reduction on the stove, and on the first go-around I accidentally made wine-flavored hard candy.  Not a bad mistake, but still, not going to work in the pie.  But the second time around worked just fine, and made a lovely blackberry compote, that, when paired with a fresh lime curd, does amazing things in a pie crust.

But the work was worth it.  And it's pretty too.

There are three parts, four if you want to top with a little homemade whipped cream, but a blackberry on top does just fine.  I recommend making the crust, and while it is baking make the lime curd, and while both those two cool, make the blackberry compote.



PIE CRUST
(Makes about 20 mini pielette crusts.  To double, multiply all ingredients by two.)

1 3/4 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Ice Water

1. Mix flour, sugar and salt.  Add cold butter cubes and mix with pastry cutter (other options include food processor, fork, whisk) until mixture is clumpy.  Add water bit by bit, mixing until dough forms.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in freezer for 10 minutes.  (Can also be made a day or two before, just make sure to wrap tightly so the dough doesn't dry out in the freezer.)

2. Preheat oven to 375 Degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease mini cupcake tin with cooking spray.  Cut out 20 small squares of foil.

3. Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness. Using a 3" diameter round cookie cutter, cut dough into circles.  Press each circle of dough into a cup in the cupcake tin, pinching edges to form scalloped edges.  Press a piece of foil into bottom of each crust cup and fill each with a few pennies or dry beans.  

**If at any point the dough starts to get difficult to handle, put it back in the freezer.  I put each circle of dough in the freezer right after cutting, which made it easier to press into cupcake pan without ripping the dough.

4. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and lift out foil and weights.  Reduce temperature to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit.  Cover pan loosely with foil (so crust edges don't burn).  Return crust to oven and bake until crust is light golden brown, an additional 5-10 minutes.

5. Carefully remove crusts from pan; cool completely before filling.

**I baked these in two batches because I only have one mini cupcake pie tin.  I spaced the dough out in every other cup so as not to have the edges stick together.  I think you're safe to not space them out, as long as you make sure the edges of dough don't touch each other, because the dough does't spread out as it cooks.

LIME CURD (Adapted from Bon Appetit)

1/2 Cup Fresh Lime Juice
2 Large Eggs
1 Large Egg Yolks
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon unflavored Gelatin
1/3 Cup Chilled Heavy Cream

(*This will make enough filling for 20 pielettes.  If you want to double the recipe, use 1 cup lime juice, 3 large eggs, 3 large egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 tsp gelatin, 3/4 cup heavy cream.)

1. Set a strainer over a medium bowl, set aside.

2. Stir lime juice, eggs, yolk and sugar together in another medium bowl.  Set bowl over a large saucepan of gently simmering water.  Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water.  Whisk until mixture has thickened, the whisk leaves a path when lifted from the curd, and an instant-read thermometer registers 175 Degrees Fahrenheit, about 15 minutes.  Add butter into curd, one tablespoon at a time, whisking to blend between additions.


3. Strain curd into prepared bowl.  Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd.  Chill until cold, about 2 hours.  (You can make this up to 2 days in advance as well.)

4. Sprinkle gelatin over 1 Tbsp water in a small bowl.  Let stand until gelatin is soft, about 10 minutes.

5. Using an electric mixer, beat cream until soft peaks form.  Add gelatin mixture.  Continue beating cream until just before firm peaks form.  Fold whipped cream into lime curd.  Cover and chill.

BLACKBERRY COMPOTE (Adapted from Bon Appetit)

1/2 Cup Fruity Red Wine (Chiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon)
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Water
1 Cup Blackberries

(*If you want to double, multiply everything by two.)

1. Combine wine, sugar and water in a small saucepan.  Bring to a simmer over high heat, whisking slowly until sugar has dissolved.  Reduce to low heat and continue simmering until liquid has reduced to 1/4 cup, about 10-15 minutes.  

*Each pan and stove varies, so your liquid may reduce more quickly.  Check and stir liquid every 2 minutes or so to avoid burning or the candied effect I mentioned earlier.

*I recommend covering saucepan loosely with a lid otherwise you'll get wine splatter around the pan.

2. Remove from heat and let cool in pan.


3. Pour into bowl and add blackberries.  Gently mash with a fork or whisk.  Chill.

ASSEMBLY

1. Spoon about 1/2 Tbsp. blackberry compote into each piecrust.  Spoon 1 Tbsp. lime curd on top of compote.  Top with a blackberry.  Chill before serving.