Mini Apple Pies

Yep.. I've moved away from baking cupcakes a little bit.

But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate small individual sized desserts.

These mini apple pies were just the right size to be eaten by themselves (one after the other...);
Or with a scoop of ice-cream... 

Warm Apple Pies
Ready for a picnic...

These were a spontaneous baking decision spurred by an abundance of apples in our fridge that had been hiding in the back a little tooooo long to be enjoyed fresh.

What better way to reduce wastage than to whip up a few little pies?!

Actually.... this recipe made HEAPS of pies.

M I N I   A P P L E   P I E S

I was on auto-pilot cutting the pastry and filling the muffin tins.. 

I lost count of how many trays I put into the oven.

And when they came out (all warm and crispy and smelling simply ah-mazing), I had to taste a few for quality control purposes so I don't have an exact number..

But at a guess, I think this recipe probably made over 40 pies.

40 super cute pies with little stars on top.

Fresh out of the oven

Here's how it's done - 

 Start by cutting up the apples - At a guess (yep... There was no tight recipe following during this baking session) I probably chopped up about 8-9 apples.

Mix the apples with:

12 tablespoons of flour

1 + 1/2 cup of sugar

4 teaspoons of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

Plus butter chopped into little centimetre cubes

and Pastry.

Sidenote...

This is going to sound snobby - But I don't usually bake with frozen pastry. 

(Like, with this lemon meringue pie for example...)

But (sadly and strangely) I 'inherited' an abundance of frozen pastry from my Nan's freezer..

So I specifically searched for a recipe which required frozen pastry on this occasion, 

Anyway....

 Stir the dry ingredients through the apples. Coating them evenly.

Then cut large circles out of the shortcrust pastry; and smaller circles out of the puff pastry (I would suggest that you can use the same pastry for both pie base and top - but I had both to play with..)

Line each cup of your muffin tin with the shortcrust.

Fill the crusts with your apple mixture; pop a cube of butter on top; then top with puff pastry circle.

I brushed each pie with an egg wash to get that 'golden glow', but melted butter would work too.

Then bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 10-15 minutes or until golden.

 Enjoy - Preferably with friends like Kimberlee, Emma and Pippa (at the infamous unveiling of Mr Chuck Bass).!

xx