Chocolate Cherry Pie in a Jar

12 – Half-Pint Wide-Mouth Mason Jars
3 – 9-inch Pie Crusts (double that if you’re making a pie that needs crust on top)
Pie filling of your choice

Note:  I used three cans of cherry pie filling for a dozen jar pies.

Wash and dry the Mason Jars.

Cut the pie crust into quarters. You’ll use 1/4 of each pie crust for each jar.

 

Press the piece of pie crust into the jar, completely covering the sides and reapplying excess crust as needed.

TIP:  Here’s a trick to keep the bottom of your pie crust from getting soggy.  Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs in the bottom before adding the filling.  It helps soak up the liquid. I didn’t have any graham crackers on hand but I did have some chocolate cookies that I wasn’t too pleased with the way they had turned out.  So, I used those instead. 

Next, add the pie filling of your choice.  I used Cherry.

I then went one step further and added the cookie in the middle of the pie filling.  Viola…Chocolate Cherry Pie!   Fill the jar with a layer of graham cracker crumbs or a cookie of your choice.  Next, add some pie filling and…

top with crust if needed.

You can now bake the pies as directed in your recipe or you can put the lids on and freeze them.  If you freeze them, just bake as directed.  If you want to bake them before putting in the freezer, put the lids and jar rings on them as soon as they come out of the oven.  Soon you will hear popping sounds as the lids are being sealed from the heat.  Let the jars cool before putting in freezer.

These pies take the same amount of time to bake as a 9” pie.

There’s something very satisfying and comforting about eating pie straight out of the jar while watching your favorite movie or reading a good book.  You could even plop a scoop of ice cream on top if you want.

 

This recipe was adapted from the Gypsy Melting Pot blog.