Mini Apple Pie Goodness

I got this recipe from Little Bit Funky.  The only thing I did differently was make the pie crust and use slightly less cinnamon. It was just a lot of cinnamon the first time I made it. The thing I love about these is that they are pretty simple to make and they are super easy to transport & there's no mess when serving! I think this would be perfect to do if you need to bring a dessert to a get-together or even at the holidays. I know dishes are the last thing anyone wants to do when celebrating and spending time with family and these you don't have to worry about messy plates, messy pie servers or messy pie pans!

Pie Crust Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup water

 Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. 
2. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 
3. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. 
4. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic, and place in freezer about 1 hour - just until it's no longer warm - or you can refrigerate it for 4+ hours. Freezing it for an hour ended up being perfect. The dough was SO easy to work with. 
5. Roll out dough on a floured counter. Don't over work it. 
6. Using a Rammekin (or any clean, circular object that is slightly larger than a muffin pan), cut out 24 circles of dough. With left over dough, cut out strips or small shapes - this will make the pie topping later.
7. Place each dough circle into each cup of the muffin tin - you may need to use some of the left over dough to cover the sides better. Every time I've made these, that has been the most difficult part - but pinching the dough at the top of the cup and then working down is MUCH easier then working from the bottom up. I tried.
   

 
Apple Pie Ingredients:

• 8 cups (5-6 large) Apples (I used Granny Smith), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 12 tablespoons of flour
• 1 1/2c of sugar
• 4 teaspoons of cinnamon (the original recipe says heaping teaspoons, but I personally thought that was too much - 4 leveled off teaspoons was much better the second time around)
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg 
• 4 tablespoons of chilled butter cut into 24 equal portions 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl because it's the biggest bowl we have & a wooden spoon), mix together apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Make sure apples are evenly coated and then set aside - the juices in the apple with begin to  make it make a little bit of syrup - that's perfect!
2. Spoon the apple mixture into the dough filled muffin cups. Make sure they're heaping - you won't them to be domed.
3. When the apples are all spooned out, you may have some cinnamon sugar syrupy goodness at the bottom of your bowl - I highly suggest spooning this on top of the apple mixture! So yummy!
4. Place a piece of butter on top of each pie then add the strips or shapes of extra dough on top of it, being sure to pinch it onto the side of the pie crust lining the cup. 
5. Brush with melted butter. 
6. Bake at 400*F for 15-25 minutes - it really depends on your oven. Ours has a mind of its own, so I started checking on it at 15 minutes (because the original recipe says 18 minutes). Some batches baked in 15, some in 25. Hopefully we'll be done with this oven soon. :)
   
   
   Enjoy your yummy little apple pie. Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream is highly recommended. :)