Mini Raspberry Pies

Last week I bought some raspberries at Costco. Many of them were delicious and some of them were hard or weird (probably previously frozen?). Anyway, I didn't want to waste them so I decided to make some mini pies.  As luck would have it, we also had a broken pie crust in the freezer!

I made up this recipe a little bit but I think I can recreate it for you here. The mini pies are pretty good, good enough to serve for an impromptu party. Delicious warm, okay cold - so maybe reheat for a few seconds before serving.

Ingredients
For the pies
1 Pie crust
1 1/2 Cups raspberries
Juice of one lemon
2 T tapioca
2-3 T sugar (depends on how sweet your berries are)
cooking spray
a little water

For the topping
2-3 T flour
3 T cold butter
2-3 T brown sugar
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 and spray 8 muffin cups with cooking spray
2. Place raspberries in a bowl with lemon juice, sugar and tapioca. Stir and let sit until ready to use
3. Roll out the pie crust (add water if it is dry) on a floured surface and cut into 8 parts
4. Place one piece of dough in each prepared muffin cup and press up the sides
5. Make the topping and mix together with your hands until small peas
6. Distribute raspberry mixture among pies. Top with topping
7. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown around the edges

Buttermilk Raspberry Cake

Last week at the Farmer's Market they had a deal of 3 pints of raspberries for $5. I couldn't pass it up--but then I ended up with a lot of raspberries to eat. I browsed my favorite food blogs and discovered Smitten Kitchen's Buttermilk Raspberry Cake. This cake is just divine. It only takes about 30 minutes start to finish and yields a delightfully light and airy cake. Smitten suggests the use of other berries...but I wouldn't do anything too sour.

Buttermilk Raspberry Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 packet sugar in the raw for topping
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450. Butter and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.
2. In a small bowl whisk together first four ingredients
3. In another bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy (2 minutes)
4. Add vanilla and zest and beat some more
5. Add egg and beat until combined
6. Alternate flour and buttermilk, starting and ending with flour, until combined
7. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Scatter with raspberries (I did a nice circular thing but couldn't see them in the end.
8. Bake 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pan and then invert onto rack and let cool some more (this didn't work for me and my cake fell apart so wait long enough before inverting)
Serve warm (or cold it's good all the time..it would be great with whipped cream.)

This cake doesn't last more than 2 days...so eat it immediately and be sure to finish the whole thing in one sitting!