pretty, little things

i have always loved minis. growing up i had collections of tiny, woodland creature figurines & miniature cacti. and when i started my first job in a professional kitchen, the amuse bouches & mignardises were two of my favourite things to create everyday. now, i think i'm becoming most well-known for my miniature cupcakes - 'they're soooo cute!', 'are they real?', 'how do you make them so small?' & i take it as a compliment every time someone asks to take a photo.

this weekend, in addition to the market, i made a lot of pretty, little things for a special tea party on sunday. the theme was vintage, shabby chic & quite fun to play around with.

the menu consisted of:

devilled eggs with dijon & tarragon

vegetable bundles with tangy poppyseed dressing

mini spinach & cheese filo parcels

cucumber & dill tea sandwiches

waldorf chicken salad tea sandwiches

mini cupcakes

and drum roll please......

pies on sticks!

they are essentially pie lollipops. the filling is apple/cinnamon/cranberry & they wound up being super cute. given the amount of labour that goes into each, i'm not entirely sure if they will be making an appearance at a market near you, anytime soon - but, we'll see...

i also can't take credit for their invention. the hostess of the tea party just threw the idea out there & i decided to try to make it happen. after a little internet research i felt confident that i could pull them off. my main concern was that the lollipop sticks would go up in smoke, but i baked a stick for almost an hour & it didn't even change colour... phewf!

the next step is to precook the filling to make sure it isn't too loose & holds up well when baking and, more importantly, while eating. normally for an apple pie, you would toss the raw apples with cinnamon & sugar and pile them into the pie crust. for these, i cooked it down until all of the juices reduced, chilled it & then assembled the pies. it's very important to chill the filling as well, or else the crusts will melt & be dense instead of flaky.

then it wound up being exactly like making homemade raviolis... just with a stick stuck in each one! cut out the bottom round of dough, egg wash the edge, insert the lollipop stick, mound the filling, stretch the top crust over the filling & seal the edges. egg wash the top as well & sprinkle with crunchy sugar. then just bake as usual & you're done. 

tied with ribbon around the sticks & displayed in a glass vase, they would make a very stylish addition to any dessert table... like i said 'we'll see'... :)