Mini apple Pie for Baking Partners Challenge 6

  Wishing all my Indian friends and Readers Happy Thai Pongal, Makar Sankranthi, Lohri  Bihu. 

Usually I make my baking partners challenge by the beginning of month, but this time I couldn’t find time to bake the apple pie until the 14^th. I was thinking that I should finish the challenge earlier, but ended up trying it in the last minute, with a crying baby and another curious one running around the kitchen making it a herculean task for me. Still I was able to finish the challenge.

Apple pie was on my long list of things to do, as it is an all American classic, however I was not able to find the time to try it. For this challenge both Tamy of 3sidesofcrazy and Gayathri of Gayathri’s cookspot had suggested Apple pie, one is upside down apple pie, and other is regular one and Samantha of Samanthamenzies suggested savory pies. I opted for sweet pie thinking that my princess and prince will take a bite.

If you want to know about the history of pie, it existed even in B.C at first as a savory meat pie which then gradually turned into a sweet pie and came to our dinner tables. If you are interested in reading the history read from here

After I decided to venture into apple pie making; I realized that I had no pie pan as it was broken into pieces by my princess during a photo session. So asked hubby to get me a disposable pie pan from Wal-Mart he did. It was 9 inch pie pan. At first I thought of making a 9 inch pie, however, this week, lots of sweets consumption is going to take place. Today is 14^th   Thai Pongal/Makar Sankranti and for that I made sweet pongal, because my little prince likes it. 17^th of this month is my hubby’s birthday and next day is my prince’s first birthday. So we are going have a sweet overload. So I decided to make mini apple pies. I got inspired from here .

First I was thinking that I need to use shortening in the crust, then skipped that idea and opted for all butter crust. I like granny smith apple in baking so used that one, and also added spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I was also in the confusion of whether I want to precook the apples before adding it in the pie. Finally I decided that this time I will try the raw version, may be next time I may try the cooked version. I liked the idea of keeping a marinating the apples with spices and sugar and setting it aside for about 1 hour to release their juice and then that juice is reduced with butter in microwave as suggested by pie and pastry bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum . I incorporated reduced juice and butter again to the apple pieces. I have always been amazed by the beautiful lattice in the pies and my heart yearned to try the mini version and I ended up with it. Still I think I need extra practice to make it even better. Means there is room for improvement. I searched lot to recipes; and even found a blog post of 12 criteria for judging the great apple pie here.  

My apple pie turned out to be cute little treat. It is beautiful and tasty, and you will be in apple wonderland. Cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg takes the apple flavor to next level. The flaky crust and the taste will make you try the next piece too. You are not going to stop at one for sure. Make some heart shaped apple pie for this Valentine’s Day. 

  For crust you need following ingredients.

 For the filling these are ingredients.

 I made crust like this.

And filing like this.

 Assembling the pie and baking done like this 

  Please make sure to visit each and every baking partner’s page and take a peek into their delicious creations. You can see both sweet and savory version of pie.

 Print Recipe from here

Mini Apple Pie

Adapted crust from here and filling is inspired from here

Prep Time    20 minutes

Chilling time for crust: 1 hour 20 minutes

Bake Time    45 minutes

Serves    8

Ingredients:
          For Crust

1 3/4 Cup/245g All purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon/2g Salt

1 tablespoon /15g Sugar

 3/4 cup/157g Chilled butter

5 tablespoon Ice cold water

For filling

3 ½ Granny Smith Apples

1 tablespoon Lemon Juice

3 tablespoon Brown Sugar

3 tablespoon White Sugar

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon butter

How I made

           In a bowl mix all purpose flour, salt, sugar. To this add chilled cubed butter, using a pastry blender blend the butter well into the flour mixtures resembling pea’s structures. To this gradually add ice cold water and bring everything to form dough. Divide the dough into two equal pieces of 237g and wrap it with plastic wrap and chill the dough for about 1 hour.  You can also freeze the dough for about 1 month at this time.

          While the dough is chilling make the filling, peel, core and cut the apple into small pieces. To this add lemon juice, spices, salt, sugars, cornstarch and mix everything well and set aside for 1 hour.  After one hour of resting at room temperature you will see that apple will release the juices. Collect the juices in separate bowl and add butter and microwave for high at 2 minutes to reduce the volume of juices. Once juice volume is reduced add back the thick juice into apple pieces and mix well.

         once the dough is chilled take out the one half of the dough and transfer to a parchment paper dusted with little flour and spread it into a thin  sheet, using  bowl or cup larger than your cupcake /muffin tin cut about  8 inch round disc. Gradually press the circular disc into the cupcake pan. Prick well using a fork. To this add 2 tablespoon of apple filling.

            The spread the other half of the dough into thin sheet and cut it into thin strips of ¾ inch. These strips are used to make lattice top. Try to overlap one another to make beautiful lattice.

                         Preheat oven to 375F. While oven is preheating chill the prepared apple pies in the refrigerator.

             Bake for about 45 minutes or until top is browned and juices starts bubbling. Make sure to line the cup cake pan using a baking a sheet to prevent the dripping of juice in the oven.

             Allow to cool the pie in the cupcake tin for about 1 hour and then carefully tilt and transfer to serving plate while it is warm.

           Enjoy with or without vanilla ice cream.