Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Apple Filling
- Peel, core, and cut apples into cubes, roughly ½ inch in size.
- Place the sauté pan over medium heat and melt butter.
- Place the prepared apples into the pan with the melted butter and sauté for a few minutes.
- Add the ground cinnamon and sea salt to the pan and stir to coat evenly.
- Add the sugar and stir to combine evenly.
- Add the juice of the half a lemon to the pan and lower the heat.
- Cook over low to medium heat for about 4 minutes, releasing the juice from the apples.
- In a liquid measuring cup measure out ¼ cup of cold water, add the corn starch and mix with a spoon until smooth.
- Slowly add the corn starch mixture to the pan stirring it in. The apple mixture will become very think, this is what you want.
- Once the mixture is thick, turn off the heat and add the remaining tbsp. of butter, and stir it in.
- Place the apple mixture into a container, and into the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Flaky Pie Crust
- Place the flour, sugar, and sea salt into a large bowl, and stir to combine evenly.
- Cut the very cold butter into small pieces.
- Add the cold butter to the bowl with the flour mixture, and using a pastry cutter or 2 butter knifes, cut the butter into the flour mixture, until it resembles wet sand.
- Add the vegetable oil to the flour mixture and combine using your hands until incorporated (be very careful not to overmix and cause the cold butter to warm up).
- Add the ice-cold water to the mixture slowly forming a dough with your hands.
- Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Form the dough by pushing it together with your hands, be careful not to overmix it, or the cold butter will warmup and the dough will be less flaky and tender.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least a day,
Building the Mini Pies
- Cut the cold dough into 12 even pieces (I like to cut it in half first, it makes it easier)
- On a lightly floured surface roll the pieces out to about ¼ inch thick.
- Place a small bowl on top of the rolled dough using a small knife or a large circular cookie cutter cut a circle. Continue cutting the circles until finished, stack them using parchment paper so they don't stick together.
- Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper and lightly coat with pan release spray. Place 4 of the dough rounds on the pan.
- Using the ice cream scoop, scoop the chilled apple filling onto the dough rounds.
- Then using a tablespoon, place the caramel chips over the apple filling, sprinkle each with a small amount of sea salt.
- Beat the egg and tablespoon of water together creating an egg wash.
- Brush the dough with the egg wash around the filling.
- Fold the dough over the filling and seal it by folding the edges together, you could use a fork to push the edges together more securely. Continue this process until the dough and filling is used up. You will need 2 sheet pans for baking all 12.
- Using a small sharp knife make 3 slits in the top of the dough, then using the rest of the egg wash brush the tops of the pies. To finish sprinkle, them with sugar.
- Before baking heat oven to 350℉ and place the mini pies in the freezer for 10 minutes. You could skip the freezer step, but I think it results in a better final product.
- Place the pies in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, rotate the pan and continue baking for 15 or until nicely golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and place them carefully onto a cooling rack, cool for 10-20 minutes and enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
These delicious little hand pies can be made ahead and stored raw in the freezer for a least 2 weeks tightly wrapped. When you are ready to bake take out as many as you need and allow 5-10 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet pan to defrost a bit. Then bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. Always remember to rotate your pan halfway through the baking time so the pies get evenly brown. I would recommend increasing the baking time by 5-10 minutes if baking them from the freezer. In addition, know that using store bought pie crust will work just fine!