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Pillsbury sponsored a post on Willow Bird Baking wherein I used their pizza crust for a grilled pizza project -- and these are the result! These mini-pizzas are adorable no matter how you cook them, but grilling pizzas turns out to be fast, delicious, and perfect for the summer. Leave the toppings on the side as a topping bar so everyone can create ( Read more... )

Homemade pie crust is not hard at all, particularly after you make it a couple of times and get a feel for the dough. And particularly if you have a great recipe. I've made some that were sticky and difficult to work with because of the moisture content, and others that threaten to fall apart. This one, however, is my absolute favorite. The texture ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago I went strawberry picking with a group of lovely food bloggers in Charlotte. It was my first time picking berries, and it was a lot of fun -- perhaps mostly because of my company! I managed to get a lot from the experience and wrote all about it in a post on Willow Bird Baking (see link below ( Read more... )

This was dessert #1 for my boyfriend's birthday. It's actually an older recipe that I updated with some bright new pictures and a new serving suggestion: pretzels ( Read more... )

This is the best pie I've ever eaten. Ever!

It's also my second try at a Red Berry Pie. My first (last year) was a bit of a mess for many reasons. Version 2.0 worked like a charm, though. This red berry pie uses the vodka crust I complained about in my last post (still difficult to handle, but still tasty, flaky, and tender, so I'm torn) and ( Read more... )

My sweet boyfriend bought me America's Test Kitchen (the latest season and cookbook) for Valentine's Day! After watching their "best blueberry pie" episode, I had to give it a go ( Read more... )

Last night, inspired by this blog post, I decided to try my hand at cup pies and use up some of apples that have been sitting on the counter. I've made pie once a week for the last year or so, but this was my first attempt at miniaturizing it to bake in a regular muffin tin. I used my usual pastry recipe, guesstimated on the filling, and followed ( Read more... )

I've been wanting to make a tart for quite awhile. I've been practicing my crust-making for an article I wrote on my quest for the perfect crust, and tart shells were the one thing I hadn't yet tried. I made a pâte sucrée tart shell, had some fun grating it into the tart pan (and almost cutting off my pinky /melodrama), and ended up with two ( Read more... )

I've been in the autumn spirit lately and so when I heard my Sunday school class was having a potluck, I wanted to bring something with fall flavors. I also wanted something individual and sweet. I settled on these lovelies: miniature pies!


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