The Pie Maker

Hello hello,

Well it has been a long time since I had something exciting enough to post about on the Crazy Coffee Mama blog. So here we go with my new favourite thing:

The Breville Personal Pie Maker


This baby is great! She seals the pie top and bottom together in a cute little crimped pattern. She cooks the pie in 8 to 12 minutes and can make quiche, frittatas, savory pies and sweet pies. I LOVE this small appliance....

Here are some of the things that I have made with her already:

*** Note all pies have been plated on a side plate and my photographic skills are improving...

Ham and White Cheddar Quiche



This was the first thing that I made. For ease of preparation, I used pre-rolled  Pillsbury Pie Dough. One uses the handy dandy little cutter and presto magic dinner is ready. The quiche recipe is a snap to make: sauteed onion, diced cooked ham, grated white cheddar, eggs and a splash of milk! Mix it all together, pour 1/3 of a cup into the pie shell, close lid and bake for 10 minutes. Voila, there is dinner.

Spinach and Feta Pie

This spinach pie is delightful. I once again used pre-rolled dough to speed things up. The filling is: one package of frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained, diced red onion, 125g of feta crumbled, garlic and just enough homogenised egg mixture to bind the works together. Place 1/3 of a cup packed filling into the pastry shell and bake for 8-10 minutes.

The Spinach pie was especially good reheated at work for lunch. While I do not imagine my kids jumping for joy at the thought of this pie, the glory is that I can make four different pies at once if I want. That way everyone can enjoy their meal without too much work for me!

Of course, what would a pie maker be with out making the all important Apple Pie. Here's thinking of by big sister and how much fun it will be to make her one next time she is in Canada. This one was made with pie filling from a can, next time I plan to use homemade apples.

Thinking of Laura Apple Pie with mini apple decoration

So for my next trick, I thought I would make a Saturday lunch of quiche after working the over night shift and being a little bit punchy with sleep deprivation. Well, it worked out well, I made two kinds of quiche: Ham and White Cheddar again along with Broccoli and Cheddar. Since I buy a vegetable platter for making lunches, I had a little bit left over by saturday. Ideally, the left over broccoli was just the right amount to fill a pie!

For this round of quiche making, I dropped the solid fillings into the pie shells and then topped them up with some "Egg Beaters" seasoned with salt, pepper and a splash of milk. This method allowed me to easily make 2 of each kind. I could see having a selection of ingredients out for people to pick from and making any combination that struck your fancy. It is like a omelet station at the buffet but quiche instead.

Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

Again, this was a great reheated lunch two days later!

Tonight, I thought I would try making a meat pie for dinner after reading a recipe for Pork Pies! I used onion, celery, carrots, minced pork and some gravy to make a quick filling. All in all the filling most likely took 20 minutes to wash, chop, cook and cool from boiling hot. While the filling cooled down, I cut the pastry tops and bottoms and pre-heated the pie maker. In the end, it took 40 minutes to make dinner. The best part was that while the pies spent 8 minutes in the cooker, I was able to get the majority of the clean up done.

Pork Pie with a fall leaf

Pork Pie filling

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I look forward to making Pumpkin Pie for my son, fresh apple for my daughter, blueberry for my husband and who knows what for myself. Just think, four custom pies for dessert!

Please be sure to share your favourite pie, frittata, quiche or other recipes with me!