Mini Skandinavian Jelly Pies

Today I'm so happy to share my first reader submitted guest post!  The lovely Sarah from A Girl In Transit is here to share her recipe for mini pies!

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Hi there! I'm Sarah and I'm a wife, mother, dog owner, and the writer of my blog
A Girl In Transit. First off I want to say how awesome Katie is. So creative and inspiring and I'm SO thankful that I'm sharing a recipe with you on her blog today. Thank you Katie! Below you'll find my own rendition of a family recipe. Mini Skandinavian Jelly Pies. The perfect snack to bake when you are craving a berry treat. Especially when berries aren't in season. Enjoy!

I've been wanting pie lately, but none of the fresh fruit in season has me inspired, so I did my own spin on a recipe my mom taught me. My mother's recipe is two sugar cookies sandwiched together with jam in the middle. Mine is two pie crust dough with preserves in the middle. The great part about jam and preserves is you can buy it (or make it when the fruit is in season) and you can use it throughout the year. We chose raspberry preserves. Samantha definitely enjoyed them and was the perfect little companion and helper.

- Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup shortening (recommended: Crisco. I would also recommend the measured sticks of Crisco. Much easier to work with)
• Ice water
• Optional, sanding sugar

- Filling: 1 jar of preserves.  (I used a 13 oz jar and had some left over. )
- Serves about a dozen

- Directions:

In a medium-mixing bowl cut the shortening and salt into the flour by hand or with a pastry blender until it's the texture of cornmeal. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice water over the mixture and mix just until the dough is moistened. Repeat by adding 6 to 8 tablespoons water (one at a time) until all the dough is just moist. Take care not to over mix.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough in half and roll into a ball. Roll 1 of the balls out with a rolling pin. (Tip: sandwich the dough between two pieces of wax paper. You handle the dough less and you don't need extra flour which would dry out the crust.)

 Cut out 12 small circles with a cookie cutter (My cutter was about 3 inches across). Place on a greased cookie sheet. Dollop about a tablespoon of preserves in the center of each circle. Then proceed to roll out the 2nd ball of dough and cut out 12 more circles with the cookie cutter.

With water or egg wash use a brush or your finger to outline the bottom dough circle's outer edge. This acts as a glue to seal the top dough circle to the bottom. Once all the pies have the tops on them push the edges around to seal and either prick with a fork or cute an x with a knife in the middle of each pie to let them vent. Brush more egg wash over the top of each pie and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are light brown.

*Click HERE to see the original pie crust recipe

***Thank you so much, Sarah, for sharing this amazing recipe!  I can't wait to try it out!!

Have a great weekend, friends!  xoxo Katie