May 4, 2019

Star Wars Day 2019

Fellow Star Wars nerds, today, is our day. Once again we pay tribute to the nostalgic sci-fi series we know and love. (with some exceptions… looking at you young Anakin) Personally, I don’t know a better way to celebrate something other than with food. This Star Wars day treat was inspired by this incredible recipe from the blog CoffeeandCrumpets. I feel I’ve gotten to a place with baking where I have a bit more confidence. However, the thought of making my own pie crust just seems too difficult. In this day and age, we may not have lightsabers but at least someone had the good sense to make pre-made pie crust! May the force be with them.

What You’ll Need:

Pie Crust or Puff Pastry
4 Cups Strawberries
1 Cup Sugar
1-2 Tbsp Corn Starch
Parchment Paper
Flour for Dusting

I tried out two different pastry options to see which was better. In my opinion, they both have their merits. The puff pastry required less effort since it was already flat and rolled out. I liked the taste and texture using the pie crust (reminiscent of a pop tart) but this took a lot longer since it needed to be rolled out by hand and the shape wasn’t easy to cut shapes out of. If you are making these ahead of Star Wars day or are a Jedi pie crust master I would go with pie crust. If you’re going to eat these right away the puff pastry is flaky and delicious but doesn’t last well frozen in your fridge (or carbonite). Whichever option you choose make sure you leave it out in room temperature for about an hour.

While your pastry is defrosting get to work on your filling! Combine your strawberries and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Mix and muddle the fruit until it has the consistency you would like. There isn’t really a right or wrong consistency so just search your feelings.

In a small bowl combine cornstarch and a little water. Add into fruit mixture in parts to thicken the filling. Set filling aside to cool.

This project will take a lot less time if you have a cookie cutter in the shape of the Millennium Falcon. I have enough cookie cutters to be on an episode of Hoarders so I wasn’t going to buy one just for this. So I drew out what I thought was the shape of the Falcon on cardboard to use as a template. This maybe wasn’t my greatest idea since I could have just printed out a silhouette. Instead, I ignored all of Yoda’s advise and tried. It worked out pretty ok.

Roll out the pastry dough on a lightly floured surface. Using your cookie cutter or template cut out the shapes of your Millennium Falcons. Keep in mind you will need two pieces for each pie. If you use puff pastry you don’t need to roll just cut.

At this point, your filling should be cool enough to start filling your pies. Spoon in the filling or use a pastry bag to make things more precise. Try and get as much in as you can while still being able to seal up the edges of the pie.

Once you have the filling on the bottom pie piece place the other piece on top and use a fork to pinch the edges down. If the pastry is dry and not sticking together you can brush a small amount of water on each piece and pinch the edges together again. When all the edges are sealed use the fork to poke a hole in the top of the pie to use as a vent.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake at 375 degrees for about ten minutes. They will look slightly golden. As an optional step, you can give each pie an egg wash to make the more golden. Just mix an egg and use it brush each pie with.