It has been suggested that my pantry and freezer are overkill. And I’ll grant that my stores are beyond necessary considering how many stores and farmers markets are within walking distance of me.

But they enable me, when I realize at 2:55 that today is Pi Day, and my mathy kids will be home at 4:00, to find a round of dough in the freezer, a half a jar of incredibly rich chocolate sauce in the fridge and a jar of apple sauce (homemade from Healdsberg apples, obs) in the pantry, and whip up a batch of mini pies.

Chocolate Apple Pi Day Pies

Pastry dough – pie dough, biscuit dough, pillsbury rolls, whatever you have handy. Thawed

Apple sauce or pie filling, about ½ to 3/4 cup

Chocolate: thick sauce, choc chips, broken choc bars, again, use what you’ve got. About half cup

Flour for rolling out dough

Non-stick pan spray (like Pam)

Mini muffin tin, rolling pin

1 Heat oven to 450. Spray each cup of the muffin pan with Pam.

2 Divide dough into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then use rolling pin to flatten to about 2.5-3″ across. Fit the dough into a muffin cup, pushing the dough gently to the bottom to avoid air pockets, pleating the edges to make it fit and the folding the top edges under to form a rim. Repeat with all the dough.

When all the muffin cups are lined, bake for 6-7 minutes, until top edges just start to brown and crusts are partly baked through. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

3 Use 2 small spoons to drop some chocolate into each cup, maybe ½ to 1 teaspoon each. Smear it around the bottom.

Drop in about a teaspoon of apple sauce and smooth top.

4 Bake for another 6-7 minutes, until crust is nicely browned. Remove pan to a wire rack. Let pies cool for 5 minutes, then lift out of muffin tin and let them finish cooking on wire rack.

Best eaten today. If the kids don’t eat them all as soon as they come home, the muni pies will keep for a couple of days in an air tight container.

Happy pi day

ps. Last year, I made quiche for dinner on 3/14. The ingrates insisted quiche does not count as pi, I believe they claimed because it’s not sweet. Though Chicken Pot Pie would have pasted muster. I countered that quiche has a crust, filled with tastiness, so qualified. Discuss.