I made these little pies over the holidays after being inspired by Jenny's Kiss Pies on the Picky Palate blog. The few things I had changed about the recipe are that mine use both Hershey's Hugs and Hershey's Kisses, I used a different brand of refrigerated pie crust, and I tried to raise the seams on top of my mini pies to make them resemble stars . . . not sure if I succeeded there though. Regardless, they seemed to be a big hit at Christmas dinner, so I thought they might be suitable for a Valentine's Day dessert as well because of the hugs and kisses theme.
(Click any photo to enlarge)
Recipe: Hugs & Kisses Mini Pies
INGREDIENTS:
1 package of two refrigerated pie crusts
12 Hershey's Kisses (unwrapped)
12 Hershey's Hugs (unwrapped)
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
granulated white sugar
granulated white sugar
powdered sugar
nonstick cooking spray
nonstick cooking spray
Step 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step 2. Unroll one room temperature pie crust on a large piece of wax paper. Cut out a dozen 3" circles using a cookie cutter, glass, or an egg poacher like I did. You will need to combine and roll out the scraps of dough to make the last 2 or 3 circles.
Step 3. Place a single Hershey's Hugs or Hershey's Kisses in the center of each circle. Then wrap two sides of the dough up and around the candy, pinching the two edges together. Repeat this with the remaining two sides. Then seal in the candy by pinching all the seams together. Place the formed mini pie on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil sprayed lightly with cooking spray.
Step 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the second refrigerated pie crust.
Step 5. Separate the egg white from the yolk. Discard the yolk and whisk together the egg white with a tablespoon of water.
Step 6. Lightly brush the top of each mini pie with the egg wash.
Step 7. Lightly sprinkle granulated white sugar on each mini pie.
Step 8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the crust has browned to your taste. Once they start to brown, you should watch them carefully because they go from a little brown to very brown quite quickly.
Step 9. After the mini pies are completely cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar. I used a mini spoon-size strainer, but you can use a sifter also.
For a large party, I doubled this recipe to create 48 mini pies. Because of the raised seams, these browned more quickly on top than Jenny's original Kiss Pies. Like I said, they were a huge hit. They are very tasty and I do think people feel less guilty to indulge in a miniature pie than to take part in full-size servings of pies, cakes, and cookies.
All ingredients for this recipe were purchased with our own funds and no compensation was received for sharing this recipe with our readers.