This is like one of those As Seen on TV products. Is your piece of apple pie falling off your fork? Are you making a mess all over the place? Or maybe you're arriving to work late because you can't take your pie with you? Well, I have good news...now you can! Introducing, the one and only, apple pie to go!
I crack myself up. I think I could definitely make money off of these babies, except I'm not quite the person who invented them. I'm not really sure who invented them but I did see them on TheFauxMartha a couple of days ago, and they just called out to me. Apparently, they've been around the blogging world for some time now, but this is news to me.
Being familiar with bourek, which are made using kind of the same concept as hand pies, I figured these would be a cinch. But as it turns out, working with butter dough is a bit more complicated. Actually, I'm not even going to blame it on the dough. The dough was great, beautiful actually. The problem was that I rolled it out too thin. I should have looked at other examples of apple hand pies online beforehand because then I would have seen approximately how thick the dough should have been. Woops.
I think I slightly over baked the first group of pies, as you can tell from their very golden brown edges, but a little crispiness never hurt anybody. They were still as scrumptious as can be. Me and my family particularly liked their higher ratio of crust to filling, something we don't usually get with a slice of traditional pie. But I have to admit, although these were incredibly adorable and fun to make, they took forever. Rolling, sprinkling, brushing, and sealing 16 different times is no joke. In the future, I'll probably stick to simply rolling out two disks of crust and calling it a day. But if what you're looking for is a delicious, portable alternative to a slice of pie, then these are just the treat for you.
Apple Hand Pies
For the crust:
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, cold
1/4 cup cold water
For the filling:
3 large apples
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, divided amongst pies, for sprinkling
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
(I had plenty of extra filling left over, so I would probably halve this recipe in the future)
Directions:
For crust:
In a food processor, pulse together flour and salt a few times to combine.
Cut the butter up into small cubes; add it to the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-sized pieces remaining. Add water, and pulse just until the dough comes together in a single mass. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
For filling:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Peel, core, and dice apples and set aside in a large sized bowl. In another bowl, mix sugars, spices and 2 tbsp flour. Reserve 2-3 tbsp of mixture in a seperate bowl. Toss apples in mixture.
Assembling pies
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough. Using a 4″ biscuit cutter, cut 16 circles out of the dough. Place the dough on a baking sheet. (Note: my circles of dough were on the thin side, so you might not get 16 circles if you roll the dough out properly)
Spoon a small amount of the apple mixture into the center of the dough (about one heaping tablespoon), leaving a 3/4″ clearing space around the edge. Sprinkle with some flour, and then with the reserved mixture. Dot with a piece of butter. Lightly paint egg wash around half of the circle. Fold dough over, pressing to seal. Use a fork to crimp the edges. Cut tiny slits in the top of the dough to allow for breathing while baking.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
YUMM these look so good and are something that I have been craving. I am going to have to make me an apple something.
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