Bailey Wedding Pie Pops!

A dear friend from college just married his beautiful bride last weekend, and I was completely honored that they asked me to make wedding favors for them.  There was no way I could even think about turning down such a wonderful opportunity.  Not only would I get to help them celebrate their marriage, but I would be baking!  Perfect combination. 🙂

While we were discussing options for favors, the idea for pie pops came up and we never looked back.  They chose four flavors – pecan, peach, apple, and chocolate.  I’m not going to lie though, this project was a little daunting!  100+ pie pops, 4 flavors, traveling across a few states, and still having delicious pie pops made me a little nervous.  But, with a little planning, a great cookbook find at the library, and a fantastic husband who stayed up into the wee hours of the night cutting labels and packaging pops with me, everything was a success!  The Bailey’s had such a gorgeous summer wedding, and the pie pops fit right in!  Congrats, you two!  I couldn’t be happier for y’all! My very first pie pops to bake were these Peach Pie Pops from earlier this year.  They came out great for my first go round, but I came away with a few thoughts about possible changes.  The main issue I had with them was that the crust was a little too thick, and it softened up after a day or two. While walking through the library one day, I happened upon a cookbook all about pies and tarts.  I decided to glance through it for any ideas it might offer on hand pies.  After looking at a few pages I was hooked!  I found a new crust recipe (that has cream cheese in it!) and it worked splendidly.  The crust was crisp, flaky, and held up well to the weight of the filling and being on the pie pop sticks. The book also discussed the different washes you can use on pies.  There are several different options depending on the look you are going for, but I decided to go with an egg wash instead of dairy.  The egg wash adds a nice color to the crust and helps to seal everything nicely. Now on to the fillings!

For the peach filling, I used the same recipe as the Peach Pie Pops I previously made.  I did opt to leave out a little bit of the crystallized ginger this go round though. For the pecan filling, I used the recipe for these delicious Pecan Tassies I made last Thanksgiving.  Mmm.  So tasty! The chocolate filling recipe was so simple!  It’s just a 2:1:1 ratio of powdered sugar, cocoa, and melted butter.  Think fudge in a pie.  Delish! Finally, for the apple filling I found a recipe for apple slab pie and decided to try it out.  Apples + sugar + flour + cinnamon + vanilla + dash of nutmeg = apple pie goodness.  The recipe I used is very similar to this one if you would like to check it out. You will have to pardon my lack of photos.  I was so busy baking that I didn’t take time to stop and document the whole process… 😦

The pie pops made the journey through the airport and down the interstate completely unscathed!  Whew.  Wedding time! Also, these pictures at the venue do not do it justice at all.  Everything was so beautiful! Making these pops was so much fun!  But, nothing is more fun than catching up with old friends and dancing the night away.  Many congrats to the new Mr & Mrs!!

I will be sharing this post at Fiesta Friday!  Be sure to stop by if you have a few minutes to check out all of the fantastic bloggers over there!