Lemon Buttermilk "Cup-Pies"

I recently purchased a quart of buttermilk for a chicken recipe that called for 1/4 cup.  Naturally, I was left with a whole lot of buttermilk and little use for it.  In an attempt to prevent waste, I started looking up recipes that truly utilized buttermilk.

I came across this recipe for a lemon buttermilk pie and thought this could be a winner.  Of course I couldn't just prepare the pie exactly as directed in the recipe.  I had to put my own spin on it.

Ever since watching the incredibly awesome show Pushing Daisies on Netflix, I wanted to try my hand at the "cup-pie" (cup-pies are to pies what cupcakes are to cakes).  While the cup-pie was something of a joke on the series, I always thought they would make for a very fun treat.  The cup-pie is not exactly something novel.  It's been going by the more familiar (and less silly sounding) name "mini-pie" for some time now.  There's even a book about them.  But calling these little pies "cup-pies" is just more fun.

To make the buttermilk lemon cup-pies, I separately prepared a flaky pie crust dough and half the filling recipe for the lemon buttermilk pie mentioned above.  I rolled out the crust dough to 1/8" thick and cut out 2 1/2" fluted rounds.  I pressed the rounds into a mini-muffin pan.  I filled each cup-pie with about 1 Tbsp of lemon buttermilk batter.  I sprinkled the tops with a little cinnamon and nutmeg.

These cup-pies are absolutely delicious.  The filling is a nice combination of tart and sweet, and the eggs and buttermilk make for a rich custardy texture.  A few notes for next time...

I believe the crust to filling ratio is too high.  In the future, I will either roll the crust thinner or perhaps use a regular size muffin tin to increase the relative proportion of filling.  Also, I think the pie crust recipe I used, while wonderfully flaky, was lacking in flavor.  Perhaps a butter crust recipe or a bit of salt added to the shortening based crust would be better.

The bottom line:  Whether prepared as cup-pies or in a 9 inch shell, this lemon buttermilk pie is simple to make and wonderfully tasty.

Daily Monku:  It really pisses me off when people buy vowels on Wheel of Fortune.  I just don't understand the point of paying for letters when there are free ones.  My strategy:  stick to guessing consonants and let some other schmuck waste their money on vowels.

Also of note, the strawberry salad in my work cafeteria has been renamed "blueberry salad."  Order has been restored to the universe.