Pie in a Jar Thank You Gifts

My kiddos are on a year round school schedule.  That means that I was searching for an end of the year gift for their teachers about a month ago.  I prefer to make something, if I can, to let our teachers know how important they are to our family.  It seems everyone has made something in a jar lately so I decided to give it a try!  I searched through my kitchen and craft dresser and came up with the following materials to use..



The crazy thing is that I bought all of this for different reasons and had no idea that there was coordinating craft paper and ribbon lurking in my drawers...  But lucky for me as I had everything I needed on hand and didn't need to spend a thing on making our gifts cute!  These are not the jars I would have chosen, but I had them on hand, so they are what I used.

I used Pioneer Woman's Key Lime Pie recipe, again.  It is my all time favorite!  I divided the graham cracker crust between the jars.  I placed the jars on a cookie sheet and baked the crusts while I whipped up the filling.

I divided the filling between the jars and placed them back into the oven to bake.

While they baked and cooled, I whipped up some fresh sweetened whipped cream.  I piped the whipped cream onto the cooled pie.

And I topped each one with a blueberry.  It took all of my willpower not to dig into these myself!

I had to get our decorated lids on these quickly!

Then we added some ribbon and spoons to make sure they could be enjoyed as soon as their teachers wanted them.  I sent these to school with the kiddos in small gift bags with reminders that they should be refrigerated and notes of appreciation.

I'm linking up!!!  Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Too Cute Tuesday, Tip Me Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, These Chicks Cooked, Works for Me Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, Foodie Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Sweet Treats Thursday, Turning the Table Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Chic & Crafty Party, I'm Lovin It, Tasty Thursday, Bake with Bizzy, Friday Favorites, Friday Flair, Sweets for a Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweet Indulgences Sunday, My Inner Baker, Simply Delish

Margarita Pie

Oh, margarita, how do I love thee? And I can love you even more as a dessert!

My hubby and I hosted a dinner party this weekend. We provided the main dish and everyone else was to bring the rest of the meal. I realized on the day of the party that no one was bringing dessert. You can't come to my house and not have dessert!  I had to come up with something fun and fast.

A few weeks ago, I tried Pioneer Woman's Key Lime Pie recipe.  It was delicious!  I used to make a no-bake margarita pie with a pretzel crust. It was always yummy and a big hit!  Thinking of both of those desserts gave me an idea...

I started by placing a few handfuls of pretzels into my food processor and chopping them into crumbs.

I put 4 tablespoons of butter into my pie plate and melted it in the microwave.  I then added 1/4 c. sugar and the pretzel crumbs, a little over a cup into the pie plate.

I mixed everything together and pressed the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate.

The pretzels provide that wonderful salty compenent to the margarita flavor of this pie.  I put the crust into a 325 degree oven and baked it for 9 minutes.  I let it cool while I made the filling.  This is where the recipe from Pioneer Woman comes in, I used her recipe for the filling.

It started with gobs and gobs of fresh lime zest!

I used two limes worth because they were pretty small limes.  Then I juiced those two limes along with 3 of their friends!

I put the lime juice and zest into the bowl of my mixer with two egg yolks and beat it all together.  Next, I added a can of sweetened condensed milk...

I beat it all until it was nice and frothy and then...  I strayed from the recipe and took it down my favorite path...

I added 2 tablespoons of Patron Anejo and...

I added 2 teaspoons of Cointreau Orange Liqueur.  I'm telling you, I could eat this straight from the bowl!!!  I poured all of this goodness into the pretzel pie crust.

I baked this for 16 minutes and placed it on the cooling rack.  Once it was cool enough to go in the refrigerator, I wrapped it with plastic wrap and stored it in the frig until we finished dinner -- probably about 4 hours.  When I was ready to serve the pie, I whipped some fresh whipping cream with a few tablespoons of sugar and topped the pie with that and some more zest.

We all dug in and ohhhed and ahhhed our way through this pie.  And I have to admit that sharing this with friends made it taste even better!

Linking up at:

Nap Time Creation's Tasty Tuesday

Works for Me Wednesday

Simply Sweet Home's Friday Favorites

Paisley Passions' Fun with Food Friday

The Frugal Girls' Chic and Crafty

TidyMom's I'm Lovin It

Alli-n-son's Sweet Tooth Friday

Well Seasoned Life's Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Emma's Candy Bar Pie

Since we finally had a night without any plans, my 8 year old daughter, Emma, and I decided to head into the kitchen together.  Her second grade teacher made a pie for Pi Day and she has been talking about it ever since.  We made a pie from her memory and our collective imaginations of what might be yummy.  And when you start with ingredients like these, how can you go wrong?

This pie was really simple and such a fun activity to do with my kiddo.  How could I resist that face?



Here are the ingredients you'll need --

We started with the crust first.  Just throw one package of graham crackers that you've broken in half into the food processor.  Pulse until they are completely crumbed and add the butter.  Continue pulsing until the butter is combined well.

Pour the mixture into a pie plate and press into the bottom and up the sides of the dish. 
Bake the crust in a 350 degree oven for about 9 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool while you prepare the filling.

The filling starts with fresh sweetened whipped cream.  Pour heavy whipping cream into the bowl of your mixer and gradually increase the speed to high until the cream is thickened and stiff peaks begin to form.  Add sugar by the spoonfull as the cream is mixing.

Set aside 1/3 of the whipped cream.  Fold chocolate sauce of your choice into the remaining 2/3 whipped cream.

Chop the candy bars -- we only chopped one Hershey Bar and four Reese's Cups.  Then we cut one other Hershey Bar and one pack of peanut butter cups for garnish.

Put half of the chocolate whipped cream into the pie crust and spread to cover the entire bottom of the pie. Sprinkle about 3/4 of the chopped candy bars on top of the filling.

Mix the other 1/4 of chopped candy bars into the remaining filling and spread mixture on top of the chopped candy layer of the pie.  Use the reserved whipped cream and cut candy bars for garnish.  Emma did a great job decorating our pie below.  Refrigerate the pie overnight before enjoying.

_________________________________________________________

Candy Bar Pie

1 package graham crackers, about 9 crackers

4 tbsp butter, room temperature

8 oz heavy whipping cream

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 c chocolate sauce*

2 Hershey's Bars

3 twin packs Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

*I used the same homemade chocolate sauce that used in my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes recipe as filling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Break graham crackers in half and place in food processor.  Pulse until they are completely crumbed.  Then add butter and continue pulsing unil well combined.  Pour mixture into pie plate and press into bottom and up sides of dish.  Bake for 9 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool while preparing filling.

Pour heavy whipping cream into bowl of mixer.  Slowly increase spead of mixer to high and add sugar one spoonful at a time.  Continue whipping until stiff peaks begin to form.  Reserve about 1/3 of whipped cream.  Add chocolate sauce to the remaining whipped cream and fold in.

Chop 1 Hershey Bar and 2 packages of Reese's Cups into small pieces.  Cut the rest of the candy for garnishing.

Spread 1/2 of chocolate whipped cream into bottom of pie crust.  Top with 3/4 of chopped candy bars  Mix remaining chopped candy bars into remaining chocolate whipped cream and spread over the top of the pie.  Use remaining candy bars and reserved whipped cream to garnish the pie.

Refrigerate overnight and enjoy!

I'm linking this post up over at Alli N Son's Sweet Tooth Friday.  Check it out for bunches of sweet recipes!

And I'm linking up this cool new party that I just found -- Delicate Contruction's Made by Little Hands Monday.  I think it's such a cool idea to feature what our littles are making, too!