At our meeting last night eight of us tasted the samples six of us had brought. As usual there were vast differences between them all. We had so much fun tasting them that nobody took notes. Thanks goodness we have pictures!
The main conclusion we came to regarding the general idea of Pie in a Jar is that they would be good for a single person or a couple or someone needing to deal with unexpected visitors, since they were small, individual portions that could be made ahead, frozen, and baked right out of the freezer in a pre-heated oven in one hour. Drawbacks were that most pies ran over and made a mess and were hard to get out of the jars.
The pie fillings were universally loved – the pie crusts, not so much. Two fillings were strawberry/rhubarb, others were pecan/chocolate (!), blueberry, mixed berry, and peach.
Lids off, ready to go into pre-heated oven
Just out of oven
What if you filled the jars less full? They should not run over and make a mess with at least 1/2 inch of extra space on top. Also, would the crust come out better with only a top crust?
Good suggestions, thanks Liz! We also talked about having only tops or making them into tiny cobblers (biscuit crust?). There’s a lot of flexibility in this idea.