Bite-sized satisfaction. Goes well with mini pumpkin pies and chocolate chip cookie bites. Note chilling time in section I and freezing time in section II. Use a prepared pie dough and skip to part II to save some time.
Hands on time: 1 hour; Start to finish: 6 hours
Ingredients
Pie Dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 3 tablespoons cold shortening, cubed
- 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water
Filling
- 3 medium Honeycrisp apples, peeled and cored, diced
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon water
Directions
I. Make the dough:
- In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.
- Using a pastry cutter or your hands, cut in the cold butter and shortening until only pea-sized pieces remain.
- Add 3 tablespoons water and work with your hands to combine.
- Add up to 2 more tablespoons, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough clumps.
- Gently knead dough until it comes together.
- Divide dough in half, shape each half into a disk and wrap both disks in plastic wrap. Chill at least 2 hours.
II. Prepare the dough
- Spray a 12-cup muffin pan generously with cooking spray and set aside.
- Remove one dough disk from refrigerator. Unwrap and on a lightly floured surface, roll disk out to 1/8-inch thickness.
- Use a 3 1/2-inch round pastry cutter to cut 12 circles from the dough, re-rolling scraps as needed.
- Place each circle inside 1 of the muffin cups and use your fingers to press the dough into the cup so that it is even with the bottom and sides of each muffin cup.
- Once all cups are filled, freeze pan for at least 2 hours.
III. Fill and cook the pies
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Transfer muffin pan directly from freezer to oven until the pie dough is almost cooked through, about 13 minutes.
- Remove from oven and use the back of a spoon to press down any areas that have puffed up during baking.
- Set aside to cool.
- Make filling: combine apples, sugar, butter, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium saucepan, and stir over medium-high heat until apples have softened and liquid has slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
- Remove 2 tablespoons of the hot liquid to a small bowl. Add cornstarch to the bowl and whisk with a fork until no lumps remain.
- Transfer cornstarch slurry to saucepan with apples and stir in. Bring mixture to a boil for 1 minute before removing from heat.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon of apple filling into each muffin cup.
- Roll out remaining disk of pie dough on a lightly floured surface and using a 2 1/2-inch round pastry cutter, cut out 12 more rounds of dough.
- Either place these directly on top of the apple filling and press the sides into the bottom crust, or cut each circle into 1/4-inch wide strips and make a lattice on top of each mini pie.
- Make Egg Wash by whisking together egg and water.
- Brush the surface of each pie with egg wash. Bake until tops are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove pies from muffin pan and allow to cool before serving.
Source: Southern Living
