Speaking of apples... We had two bags from apple picking day, plus a half a bag of apples I'd bought the week before and still hadn't finished up. So something had to be done because the fruit flies (already populating our house because of enticing aromas of sourdough starter and ripening tomatoes) were just waiting for the apples to bruise.
I kept intending to make a pie, but the days filled up and I kept putting it off. And then Alex was invited to sleep over his friend Jack's house (Alex's first sleepover - he's been looking forward to this since the summer when the subject first came up) and we were all invited to dinner as well. I asked if I could bring something and was asked to bring dessert. Aha. Time to make pie.
Well, I already had dough made (use whatever pie crust recipe you like - I used Dorie Greenspan's "Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough"), so all I had to do was peel and chop apples. And that's where things changed course - I started peeling the apples from the previous week's apple picking trip, and though they were crisp and tasty and all, they were - a lot of them - in various stages of inner decay. Little bits of brown, or big mushy bits of brown. Each apple was different. Which made slicing them uniformly impossible. So I just cut them into small chunks, about a half inch rough dice, and tossed them in lemon juice. It took a while. Sometimes I'd peel a perfectly nice looking apple, and the flesh just beneath the skin would look great too, and then I'd clice the apple in half and the whole inside was brown and icky. It was quite the adventure.
And, since I knew my yield wasn't going to be enough for a full-sized pie, I decided to make a bunch of mini pies in muffin tins. I rolled out the dough and used round cookie cutters to cut out a dozen 4" circles and a dozen 3" circles. I used the 4" ones to line the muffin tins, and then put the tin and the plate of smaller dough circles in the fridge to stay cold. And I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F.
Right about then, Julia decided to help.
She's learned the routine - she has to get an elastic thing for her hair so I can put it in a ponytail, and she has to wash her hands - with soap, Julia - and she has to be clothed, because odds are I'll take pictures. So she showed up presentable.
She saw the extra pie dough and wanted to "make bread," so I gave her a few tools and let her play.
Once I'd peeled and cut up enough safe-to-eat parts of apple, I mixed them all together with lemon juice, a tiny bit of sugar, and a liberal amount of cinnamon. Then I filled the muffin tins....
And then I put the 3" dough circles on top and pressed the edges together as best I could to seal them.
I cut little slits in the tops and brushed them all with an egg wash...
Then I put the muffin tin (on a baking sheet, in case there was any bubbling over) into the oven
and baked them for around half an hour. (Sorry - I didn't write it down - basically you want to bake them until the tops are golden brown and there's steam coming out of the little slits.)
They smelled really, really good, by the way.
I let them sit briefly (naturally I was doing all this right before we had to leave the house) and then I dug them out of the muffin tin gently slid a knife around each mini pie between the crust and the muffin tin and popped them out. Or tried to. They came out easily enough - no sticking - but in some cases the crust was on the thin side and when I tried to pop them out with the knife, I ended up poking through the crust. Also - and this is something I need to remember for next time - the bottom crusts should have been bigger. As they were, some didn't completely adhere to the top crusts, and so when I was working on loosening them and popping them out, the top crusts would just come right off. Not the worst thing in the world, but certainly a flaw I need to fix next time around.
Most of them came out fine, however.
And they were definitaly cute.
Tasted good, too.
Because, of course, solely for the photographic purposes of this blog, I had to sample one.
You know...just so I could take this picture.
I hope you appreciate my sacrifice.
They look soooo cute! I made some last week and posted about them: I added some cheese to the crust.
Posted by: Marthe | October 18, 2008 at 09:10 AM
They looked sOOOOOOOOOO tasty. What did Julia make?
mhyg
Posted by: janice | October 18, 2008 at 09:39 AM
ha! the sacrifices you must make for your art...
My heart so bleeds for you...
Lynne
Posted by: Lynne | October 18, 2008 at 09:41 AM
Okay - Adorable! Makes me want to pick some apples and make minis! Very cute!!
Posted by: Gretchen Noelle | October 18, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Wow. I'm sorry you had to sacrifice yourself for a bite of that stuff. They're like apple pie cupcakes.
Posted by: Jude | October 18, 2008 at 02:28 PM
Those look and sound so delicious!
It reminds me that I haven't had a home-made apple pie in years, I may need to reconsider this.
Posted by: Jen - The Alien Spouse | October 18, 2008 at 03:02 PM
These look incredibly delicious! The dough looks so nice and flaky, and you can't beat the apple filling! I love the mini pies- they're so cute@
Posted by: Erin | October 18, 2008 at 04:01 PM
Those are the cutest little pies I've ever seen! I love that they are small enough to be single servings without having to cut pieces... you know the first piece of a regular pie is the hardest to cut!
Posted by: patsyk | October 18, 2008 at 05:32 PM
I definitely aappreciate the sacrifice :)
I'm always amazed at people who feel comfortable, when during a recipe, find out they don't have enough of something and figure something out themselves. I freak out, almost always. I call my husband and ask him to do an emergency grocery trip.
Posted by: Nabeela | October 18, 2008 at 07:14 PM
I wanted to let you know I made these for dessert tonight and everyone loved them! I used the big muffin silicone pan and they were brilliant. And EASY! A new favourite. Thanks for the idea! I'll be making these for the nursery school X-mas party. Who doesn't like pie?!
Posted by: Lyvvie | October 20, 2008 at 03:56 PM
WOW, this is a great idea! most especially for halloween treats! YUMMY!
Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by: Marianne | October 20, 2008 at 08:23 PM
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Thanks!
Posted by: Sophie | October 22, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Very cute! I think I'll try them. Thanks for sharing the idea!
Posted by: Heather | September 19, 2009 at 09:07 AM