I had so much FUN making these little pies!

You can PRINT or SAVE this recipe at the bottom of this post.

Here is how I made them!  First you need to make the CRUST:

Put one egg in a measuring cup and beat it, then add 2 Tbsp of vinegar and enough water to make 1 cup.

In a separate bowl sift together 4 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tbsp white sugar.

Cut up 2 cups of Crisco (Vegetable Shortening) and cut with pastry blender until crumbly.

Pour half of the wet ingredients over the top and stir with a knife. Then add the remainder until it looks like this:

Use your hands to form a ball and then place on a heavily floured surface.  Using a serrated knife cut into 4.

For this recipe you will need 2 out of the 4 pieces.  The other 2 you can form into balls, place between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and press down to form disks.  Throw into freezer for another day.

Now take the dough balls you are using for this recipe and roll out to 1/4 inch thick.  You will need a 4 inch round cutter.  I didn’t have one so I used a 3 inch and using a knife I added 1/2 an inch on each side like so:

I then got 2 jumbo muffin tins and greased them very well and put the pie crusts in each (there will be 12 in all).  Once they are all filled I put dried beans in each (this is used to weigh down the crust as you have to precook the crusts and they will shrink with no weight).  Now I did this wrong. ….. I forgot to put the beans in muffin liners so that they would be easy to remove later.  I eventually was able to remove the beans but it took alot of fussing around.  So PLEASE put your beans in muffin liners!!

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Let sit for 10 minutes and then remove shells.

Okay!!! Now for the filling!!

In a sauce pan add: 1 1/4 cups white sugar, 6 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cups water, 4 egg yolks and 3/4 cups lemon juice. Over medium heat while stirring constantly cook until thick and creamy.  Put through a strainer to take out any cooked egg  or lumps.

Add 1/4 cup of butter to the warm mixture and mix well.  Add the filling to the pastry shells.

Now let’s work on the fun part!  The coloured meringues!

You’ll need 6 egg whites.  Add a pinch of cream of tartar and 1/4 cup white sugar and whip with your mixer until stiff peaks form.  Divide into 3 bowls.  Add to each bowl the  food colouring you would like to use and then using a whisk blend.

Top the mini pies with the meringues and put in a 400 degree oven for 5 to 6 minutes.

ENJOY!