Make-Your-Own Mini Pies (for Pi Day or any day)

Yesterday was Pi Day ~ an unofficial "holiday" celebrating the mathematical expression of pi ( the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and approximately equal to 3.14)  Get it?  March 14th is 3.14.  Now my kids aren't so far along in their math studies that they've actually worked with pi, but they eagerly accepted any excuse for a fun little dessert.

Check out these fun, individual-sized pies...

I made it super easy for us and just got some premade pie crusts and three different kinds of fillings ~ apple, blueberry, and cherry.

 

Making the pies was really simple and the kids liked choosing their fillings and adding some little designs to the tops of their pies.

 

It's really pretty self-explanatory, but this is how we made our mini pies...

1.  Preheat oven to 425*.  I also used some parchment paper to cover my cookie sheets.
2.  Using a small bowl or cup, cut circles out of your premade pie crust.  (Ours were about 5" or so).
3.  Spoon some filling into the center of your crust circle.
4.  Make an egg wash by putting just an egg white into a bowl and whisking it slightly.  Then brush the wash around the edges of your circle. (It'll help to act as a "glue" to seal the top and bottom crusts). Put on the top circle of dough and gently push together the edges to seal.  Then use a fork to help further seal the edges.
5.  Using the extra scraps of crust, cut little shapes or letters out of the dough (we had initials, footballs, cherries and more).  Brush some of the egg wash over the whole top of your pie, put on your shapes, then brush a little more egg wash on.
6.  Bake until the pies are golden brown.  Our pies took about 12-13 minutes.
7.  Allow to cool a bit and serve with ice cream!

Yummy!

I was a little more literal in my interpretation and made my pie with the pi symbol!

As I mentioned, my kids haven't had to actually calculate the area of a circle or do any other problems with pi, but they are familiar with the term from one of their favorite movies ~ Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian.  We love watching it before we head down to DC to visit the Smithsonian Museums.  In the movie, Ben Stiller's character has to crack a code and gets the answer from the Einstein bobble-heads in the gift shop at the Air and Space Museum.

As we were eating our pies last night, my kids kept shaking their heads as they tried to say all the numbers from the movie (3.14159265)  Here's a little clip.

Sharing our fun desserts at: