Mini Apple Pies

Oct 10

Let me begin by saying that I cannot take any responsibility for this recipe, other than popularizing it among my work friends. Years ago my family started apple picking every fall, and I quickly became obsessed. One year I came home with an unspeakable amount of apples. I therefore had to find things to do with them. I pulled out every cookbook I owned (even then a collection to behold), and searched the indices for every apple recipe I could get my hands on. I found this recipe in the most unlikely of places, the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz. Normally when I find a recipe I like, I’ll tweek it to become my own, and I’m proud to say that often those changes result in improving the recipes. However, this recipe was perfect straight from the start, and I can’t think of any way to improve upon it. This just goes to show you that you never know where you’ll find a recipe gem!

You should always start the pie-making process by making your pastry crust. Pastry needs to stay cold to turn out well, and so you want to give this plenty of time to rest and chill in the refrigerator while you’re preparing the other components. I make my pastry doughs in the food processor, but as I mention in the video that accompanies this recipe, that isn’t required. You can easily work the butter into the dry ingredients with your hands. The food processor makes the process go faster though, and keeps the butter from warming up in your hands. So if you have one, you should use it. What you see in the image is what the final product should look like after you add the water. It’s important to use just enough water to make the dough not crumbly. This can change depending on the humidity of the day which is why I give a range of water amounts instead of a hard number.

I make the filling next to give it a chance to cool down. You don’t want it to be hot when you add it to the pastry or it will cause your pastry to melt before it goes in the oven. This can result in your pastry being tough and not flaky/crispy. The original recipe says to use 2 sweet apples and 2 tart apples, and I haven’t deviated from that ratio. That plus the lemon, gives a perfect balance of flavor in my opinion. Tart apples are varieties like granny smith, pink ladies or jonathan apples. Some popular sweet varieties are gala, fuji and honeycrisp. Two varieties to be avoided are McIntosh (which will disintegrate upon heating) and Red Delicious (which despite their name are actually a foul variety of apple imho).

The crumble topping comes together much in the same way that the pastry did. You work the butter into the dried ingredients. Instead of using the big processor to do that small amount though, I use a pastry blender or my hands. Now the crumble may be where I made one tiny change to the recipe if my memory serves me correctly. I think that the original recipe called for walnuts. Now walnuts are a perfectly fine nut, but pecans have always been my favorite, and I therefore find any excuse to substitute them into any recipe. If you like walnuts better though, feel free to reverse my change when you make it.

The assembly is the most fun part of this recipe. A trick for getting a good roll on your pastry is to make sure you keep the dough moving. I rotate my pastry on the counter a quarter turn after every roll. This keeps my dough round uniform in thickness and in shape. After you have it rolled to the perfect thickness, you cut dough circles out of the pastry, and press them into a muffin pan. You then add the filling, and top with the crumble. You want to bake the pies until they are brown and bubbly. The 40 minute timing has never failed me, but letting them go 45 minutes won’t hurt anything.

I think you’ll find that, though these pies take a good deal of time to prep, assemble and bake, they are not difficult at all. The time that you put into them will be well worth it, I can assure you. Plus, it’s also a fun recipe to do with kids. I’m sure they would love pressing the dough into the muffin pan and topping with the crumble especially. If you try it out, please let me know how it goes, and share the love with your friends and family.

Remember, you don’t have to be a professional to make magic in your kitchen.

Joe the Blue Wizard

Mini Apple Pies

Yield

Author

Joe the Blue Wizard

Prep time

1 H & 30 M

Cook time

40 Min

Total time

2 H & 10 M

If you just can’t control yourself around a full apple pie, try this mini version! Small in size, but not in flavor, these apple pies have the perfect balance of sweet and tart flavor, a crispy crust, and a fantastically delicious crumble topping.

Ingredients

Crust

1 ¼ cups (150 g) flour
2 tbsp. (25 g) sugar
2 pinches salt
1 stick (110 g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/4-1/2 cup (60-120 mL) cold water

Filling

2 tbsp. (28 g) unsalted butter
2 tart apples (I use granny smith), peeled, cored and chopped
2 sweet apples (I use gala), peeled, cored and chopped
½ cup (100 g) sugar
¼ tsp (0.6 g)nutmeg
½ tsp (1.3 g) cinnamon
Zest of ½ a lemon
Juice of ½ a lemon (or to taste)

Crumble

½ cup (60 g) flour
¼ cup (55 g) light brown sugar
¼ tsp (0.7 g) cinnamon
4 tbsp (55 g) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/3 cup (40 g) chopped pecans

Instructions

Crust

Put flour, sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse until combined.
Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Add in ¼ cup water and pulse. If mixture does not come together into one mass, add more water 1 tbsp at a time and pulse until a ball forms in the processor.
Wrap dough in cling film and hydrate in the fridge for 1-1 ½ hours.

Filling

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat until foamy.
Add the apples, sugar and spices and stir until combined.
Add the lemon zest and juice and stir again.
Cook over heat, stirring frequently until juice has been released, and then reduced down to a thick syrup, about 10 minutes.
Cool to room temp and then place in the fridge with the crust.

Crumble

Mix together flour sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Add butter and blend together with your fingers or with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles a mixture of both fine and thick crumbs.
Add in chopped pecans and stir to combine.
Place in the fridge with other components

Assembly

Preheat your oven to 350°.
Roll out pastry dough to about a 1/8th in thickness.
Use a 3 ½ in cookie cutter to cut 12 rounds out of the dough. (You may need to re-roll scraps once)
In a 12 cup muffin tin, press a dough round into each well. Make sure the round comes all the way up the sides. Flour your fingers as necessary to keep them from sticking.
Fill each crust almost to the top with apple filling.
Top each pie with a spoonful of crumble.
Bake for 40 minutes until crumble is browned and the juices are bubbling.
Allow to cool to room temperature, remove from the pan with a butter knife or offset spatula, and enjoy!

Calories

289

Fat (grams)

15.7

Sat. Fat (grams)

8.7

Carbs (grams)

37.5

Fiber (grams)

Net carbs

33.5

Sugar (grams)

19.9

Protein (grams)

2.3

Sodium (milligrams)

5.2

Cholesterol (grams)

35.5

Nutrition facts calculated using MyFitnessPal and are estimated. If you have dietary restrictions please calculate with your own brands of ingredients.

Created using The Recipes Generator