One of the things we are requested to make again, and again, are our mini apple pies. With their lovely flakey and buttery short crust and a sweet/sour spiced apple filling- we do understand why.
While we sympathize with our loyal apple pie fans, making them in a mini pie maker has caused us a fair bit of grief! I can tell you from experience that nothing is more irritating than your perfect little pies sticking to the 'non-stick' pie plates. Especially when it is really such an easy recipe to make otherwise, and sure to please without the fuss.
So we pass the buck to you. This is our recipe for our favourite (not mini but full-sized) short-crust apple pie, made from scratch.
Here is the 2-page recipe that's a little easier to print off:
Ingredients
Shortcrust
- 225 g cold butter
- 325 g flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 4-5 tbs ice cold water
Apple filling
- 10-12 small/medium apples (I weighed it to be around 900g- 1kg peeled and cored)
- 80 g white sugar
- 50 g butter
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Method
Shortcrust
Combine butter, flour and salt in food processor. Pulse until you have a fine powder.
Add water and continue to pulse until the dough just comes together. The more you mix this dough, the more it will shrink when cooking, so stop when you see a few loose clusters of dough form. Bring the dough together with your hands to a uniform ball.
Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes until cool. **see notes**
Preheat over to 180 C.
Take approximately 2/3 of dough and roll to ~5 mm thick. Place in a lightly greased pie pan, trim excess and prick the bottom with a fork. Cover with baking paper and fill with beans/ rice to blind bake.
Cook for 15-25 minutes. Take off the baking paper and allow to cook for another few minutes until the dough is dry and lightly golden brown. **See notes** (The shortcrust is better a little more bronzed than undercooked- no one likes a soggy bum!)
Apple filling
Peel, core and cut your apples. The way you cut your apples is totally up to you. For smaller pies, we usually cut them into small pieces but for larger pies, we only slice them chunkily.
Add butter saucepan at medium heat, wait until it browns a bit then add apples and sugar. Cook for 5 minutes stirring to prevent burning. Add spices and cook for a few more minutes.
If you'd like, and we do, take out your apples but leave the juice and butter to reduce and become more caramelized.
Roll out the remaining dough, making it slightly bigger than the diameter of the tin. Add filling and caramelized sauce before putting the top on. You can of course do a lattice design as well if you prefer.
Crimp the edges of the dough with your fingers or a fork and add a few scores on the top with a knife.
Top with an egg wash and some sugar granules if you wish. Put back into the oven for 20-25 minutes or so uncovered, until golden brown. Again, to get the right flakey texture, make sure you cook the dough enough.
Allow to cool for long enough to cut. Serve with ice cream, cream, custard- you name it.
Tag us in your creation- we would love to look at your delicious pies!
Notes:
While I often skip this step (because I get lazy) the gluten in the dough toughens up, even when only bringing the dough together. This also helps to prevent the dough from shrinking when it is being cooked. That being said- it certainly doesn't affect the flavour so it's up to you what you do.
This is a recommended time. I have noticed I get different cooking times depending on the oven I use and especially what pie dish I use. A ceramic dish will take a longer time than glass or especially metal so make sure to look at the texture and colour of your pastry.
Watch us make it here:
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