Individual Apple Pies

Today is Father’s Day.  My Dad loves apple pie, so that’s what I’m making– with a twist.  I made miniature apple pies.  This recipe uses a muffin tin to create perfect little personal sized pies.  You could do this with any kind of fruit pie, or any kind of pie, for that matter.

Create your pie crust as you would for any double crust pie, but dice your apples thinner and smaller than you normally would.  These pies are smaller so they need to cook for a shorter amount of time to avoid burning the crust.

Recipe yields 8 miniature apple pies

Ingredients:

Filling:
4 large granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
1 TBSP flour
1 cup of sugar
2 TBSP cinnamon

Crust:
2 2/3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-chilled All-Vegetable Shortening
6 to 10 tablespoons ice cold water
Sugar and cinnamon mix for sprinkling.
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375°

Peel and dice thinly your apples into 1″ pieces.  Toss with sugar, cinnamon, and flour, and then cook for about 5 minutes in a sautee pan over medium heat (The pies don’t cook long enough to fully cook the apples, so this is important– the last thing you want is a apple pie with crunchy apples)
Put flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Cut in chilled shortening cubes into flour mixture, using a pastry blender or a fork, in an up and down chopping motion, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some small pea-sized pieces remaining.

Sprinkle half the maximum recommended amount of ice cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, stir and draw flour from bottom of bowl to the top, distributing moisture evenly into flour. Press chunks down to bottom of bowl with fork. Add more water by the tablespoon, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together.

Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.

Divide dough in two equal balls. Flatten balls into 1/2-inch thick round disks.

Roll dough from center outward with steady pressure on a lightly floured work surface and use a cookie cutter or large glass to cut dough into sixteen  4 inch circles.  You may have to search your house for something the right size, I ended up using a creme brulee dish.  Hold the dish over the muffin tin and make sure the circles are large enough for the dough to come all the way up the sides of the tin.

Place the circles into the muffin tin to create dough “cups.”  Fill the cups with the apple pie filling, and place remaining circles over the top and pinch the sides together to seal the cups.  Cut two slits in the tops for venting and sprinkle the tops with a little cinnamon and sugar.

Bake between 20-30 minutes until crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!