Mini Sawdust Pies

Time for another Club: BAKED treat! This one is called Sawdust Pie, and according to Baked Explorations it was created in the late 1970s, at Patti's 1880 Settlement Restaurant (I googled Patti's and found out it is still around and going strong, and on the current dessert menu, there it was, Sawdust Pie) despite it's old timey name suggesting it is from much earlier.  It became popular after being published in a Bon Appetit magazine in the 1980s and has seemingly since fallen off the culinary map. I personally had never heard of Sawdust Pie, and was excited to give it a go.  

Since picky husband does not like pecans or coconut, both of which are in this recipe, and the kids are kind of hit or miss with new recipes I decided to halve this recipe and use my mini square tartlet pan.  The hardest part of the recipe was fitting the pie dough into the squares, which wasn't even that hard, just a bit tedious, but worth it for these cute little Sawdust Pies all the way.

I was surprised at how little liquid goes into this recipe, only egg whites and a touch of vanilla are mixed into the dry ingredients.  Scoop the mixture into your prepared pie dish of choice and you are ready to bake.

Above is before baking and below is after. The filling rose quite a bit so I am glad I didn't over fill the crusts!

The pie is supposed to be served with whipped cream and bananas, we were out of bananas, but served with whipped cream, these little pies were absolutely delicious!  I could definitely see making these again or even the whole pie as a holiday pie, especially if you are serving this to a pecan and or coconut fan :)

A big thank you to Tessa at Cookin' Chemist for picking this recipe for us to try, you can find the recipe here at her site  if you do not have the book Baked Explorations, give this retro recipe a try for sure :)