Back in November, two of my best friends got married (to each other!) in Hawai'i. It was this magical week of jumping off and diving under waterfalls, of eating-way-too-much poke and way-too-little shaved ice, of flower crowns, of sunsets, of driving all over Maui, of writing ukulele love songs after sundown, and of, most importantly, love and friendship. The day after the wedding, my friends and I drove up the coast to a little pie shop right off the highway, Leoda's, and bought a huge box of pies, and in true Hawai'i fashion, took them to the beach to eat. Pie on the beach! at sunset! As I said, magical.
The experience left me with, amongst all the warm and fuzzy feelings about friendships, this immense craving for mini pies. So around about December, I found this recipe for lemon cream pie and whipped up (ha!) mini versions. It makes about three mini pies, and, because I love whipped cream, I doubled the whipped cream portion of the recipe and threw some vanilla bean in. It ended up the perfect little, hand-held ray of nostalgic sunshine cutting through an uncharacteristically dark winter.
Read on for recipe...