It started out fun, a bit romantic, and very beautiful window scenery. A thousand days later, we are still locked up in our huts only to venture out for emergency milk runs. It is now less fun, not romantic at all, and pretty darn scary as those milk supplies become smaller. To me, this situation is a call to action, People! Once boredom sets in, it's time to go to the kitchen, and take up your wooden spoons and mixing bowls! Okay, okay, I know, anything sets in and it's time to go to the kitchen (or the garden) for me. I'm sorry, it's just how I cope! Everyone knows that already. As in any snowmageddon, we should combat it by throwing together a little bit of this and a little bit of that to see what shakes out! It sure can't hurt anything! Today it was baby apple pies. Turns out, this was all it took for Hubs and me to curl back up under the blanket with a plate full of noms. Oh, how divine they were as we gobbled them down, baby bite, by baby bite! ...with our last glass of milk. Hey, they just tell me to bake! Conservation is Hub's department. Blame the milk thing on him.
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Layered Apple Pie Minis
Ingredients:
Pie crust dough (I make mine, but you can buy it if you must.)
2 c granny smiths apples diced
1 Tb lemon juice
1-2 Tb flour to coat apples
½ c (plus more for topping) brown sugar
4 Tb white sugar
½ or less stick butter
½ c (or so) old fashion oats
apple pie spice (or cinnamon)
HOW TO MAKE THEM:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Make round balls out of your pie crust about half as tall as your muffin tin hole, depending on how thick you want your crust. Mine is quite thick. We like crust!
With the tamper, push down on the dough until it squishes up the sides of the tin making a cute mini pie crust. Set aside.
Dice granny smith apples small, keeping in mind the size of your pie shells. My apple pieces were about the size of a dried bean. I peeled the apples too but not totally. This give a little more texture to your pies if you keep a bit of the peel on the fruit when you can.
Toss the apples in a medium bowl and pour the lemon juice over them, coating well.
Toss 1-2 Tb flour over apples being sure to coat well. I did not use the full 2 Tb but you may need to. The flour is going to be your thickening agent, so just make sure your get all the apples coated well.
Toss over the flour coated apples the brown sugar and the white sugar, tossing about to coat well. mmmm....smelling good already!
Once all the coating was on I took a biscuit cutter and did a few extra chops (notice I said a few) to my apples to give them some variation in size so they would pack into my shells a bit tighter. You may or may not feel the need to do this. I find it works better at times when I am fitting a square something into a round something.
Fill mini pie shells full with coated apples. If you have some sugar left in the bottom of your bowl that is fine. From here on out, it's just layers.
On top of each apple filled pie dot with about a half a pat of butter.
On top of the butter sprinkle to your liking the apple pie spice, or cinnamon. I go heavy. I'm just like that.
On top of the spice put another thin layer of brown sugar.
On top of the thin layer of brown sugar sprinkle with oats. I would guess I have a heavy teaspoon of oats on each of my pies.
On top of the oats I randomly sprinkle again, brown sugar and white sugar to coat oats as much as possible, but it's not a science. Just get'er on there, as your pies are growing quite tall at this point. Here's a last minute picture of mine before going into the oven.
I had no clue they would be delicious enough to do again, much less add to my Recipe Therapy. I'll make them again soon and get more pics. But honestly, it just ain't that hard. In fact it was easy peasy!
14. Bake on middle rack in 350° preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until bubbly and toasty on top.
Enjoy Sweeties!,
~PJ
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"LIVE SELF SUFFICIENTLY, LOVE OTHERS PURPOSEFULLY, CARE FOR MOTHER EARTH AND HER CREATOR."