Guilt Free Mini Pies

I use to get Kraft Food & Family magazines (when they were free).  I loved them.  They were loaded with great recipes and enticing photo’s.  The recipes were simple too.  Somewhere along the way Kraft started charging for these magazines and it (sadly) disappoints me.   Fortunately, I still have all of my original issues so I can refer to them.

Last night I was looking for low-fat, low-calorie recipe.  For inspiration I dug out my old issues from Kraft.   I didn’t need to search beyond the issue that was on the top of the pile (Summer 2007). 

Although a lot of recipes jumped out at me, the one that I decided on was called “Flat Bottom Fruit Pie”.  It looked so fresh and inviting.  Just what my diet ordered.

Of course, I can’t leave well enough alone so I adapted this recipe to actually make a healthier version.  Once you read the recipe you will see how easy it is to interchange ingredients to satisfy just about any taste.

Here is my adaptation.  I must warn you this is a fast and easy one.  If you are looking to spend hours in your kitchen this one isn’t for you.

You will need:

1 refrigerated ready to use pie crust

1 tsp. of cinnamon & sugar (3/4 tsp. sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon) I used King Arthur Vietnamese cinnamon – my absolute favorite! 

1 package of Jell-O Sugar Free Cheesecake Pudding (and 2 cups of non-fat milk)

Fresh Blueberries

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Unroll pie crust, take a round cookie cutter and make cut outs.  (Hint – once I made the initial cutouts I rolled out the remaining dough and made several more to prevent wasting the dough.) 

Lay the cutouts on a baking stone.  Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar mixture.  I didn’t use the entire teaspoon but feel free.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

While the crusts are baking mix up your pudding. 

Let the crusts cool, and put the pudding in the refrigerator to thicken for 1 hour.

Once the crusts are cool and the pudding is thick put your mini pies together.  Top with fruit and low-fat whipped cream.

These are so versatile.  If you don’t want to use sugar-free pudding you can use regular pudding.  You could also sprinkle the dough with a cocoa and sugar mixture. Can you image these made with chocolate pudding, and topped with fresh raspberries?  Vanilla pudding and fresh peaches?  Or,  how about white chocolate pudding with cherries and chocolate drizzled on top?  The list of possibilities is endless, and these are guilt free. 

More modified Kraft recipes to come!