Pear Cranberry Holiday Pie Cups
Servings Prep Time
10-12pie cups 1hour
Cook Time
30minutes
Servings Prep Time
10-12pie cups 1hour
Cook Time
30minutes
Ingredients
Gingersnap Crumble Topping
Instructions
  1. Prepare pie dough and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Roll out pie dough to 1/4 inch thick as you would for a pie. Using a 5-inch round cutter or glass, begin cutting out circles, placing them on a plate or baking sheet. Continue to roll until you get 10-12 circles. If your dough gets too warm, place in the refrigerator while you begin your pie filling, then roll again. Once you have all of your circles, place them in the refrigerator.
  3. Preheat oven to 375
  4. Prepare cranberries by placing cranberries, 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over low heat.
  5. Let cranberries cook down while you start to peel and slice the pears, stirring frequently.
  6. When cranberries start to soften and mixture starts to thicken, remove from heat and let sit. The mixture will continue to thicken so that you have what looks like a cranberry sauce.
  7. Slice pears, then cut the slices in half, making smaller pieces. Place in a medium bowl.
  8. When cranberries are room temperature, add cranberries to the mixture and as much sauce as you want to sweeten.
  9. Add grated ginger root and mix.
  10. In a small bowl or ramekin, mix together 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cornstarch and set aside.
  11. Just before you are ready to fill the pie cups, incorporate the cornstarch mixture into the pears and cranberries.
Prepare the pie cups
  1. Take pre-cut pie dough circles out of the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature (about 5 minutes…you don’t want them super warm and soft).
  2. Using a standard 12-cup muffin tin, line each cup with pie dough. You can use your fingers to smooth out the crust.
  3. Place lined muffin tin back into the refrigerator while you make your topping.
Gingersnap Crumble Topping
  1. *THIS CAN BE DONE AHEAD OF TIME
  2. In a food processor, combine flour, oats, gingersnaps, salt and spices. Mix until the cookies are a fine crumble.
  3. Add in the butter and pulse until well incorporate.
  4. Turn out into a small bowl and with your hands, create small chunks so that it resembles more of a crumble topping than a fine mixture.
Filling Pie Cups
  1. Fill each pie cup to the top.
  2. Top each with the gingersnap crumble.
  3. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling.
  4. Let cool completely in the muffin tin before removing.
  5. Just for fun, I used a cookie stamp to make snowflakes out of extra pie dough scraps and baked them in the warm oven while the pies were cooling.
  6. Using a small butter knife or icing spatula, gently remove each pie cup and place in a decorative muffin liner. Cover loosely and keep at room temperature for two days.