Apple Pie Tarts

It’s hard to believe that I’ve had my food blog up and running for about a year now – and I have never posted an apple pie recipe! What was I thinking? Well here it is – my apple pie recipe – turned into individual tarts. This was originally a full size pie, but I wanted to make 4 “mini pies” – so you can have a pie all to yourself! I used some mini pie pans, a homemade crust, and a crumb topping. I also used some pie crust leaf cutters from Sur La Table (check them out at www.surlatable.com). I topped them with a fresh whipped cream topping, but vanilla ice cream would make them amazing as well.

Recipe:

Pie crust for a 1 crust pie (I used 1 1/2 recipe for 4 small pie tarts)

1 stick cold salted butter
1 c all purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 c ice water

Shave cold butter on a grater – then freeze butter bits for about 10 min.

Combine flour and sugar in a med. bowl. Stir in frozen butter bits with a fork. Add ice water, and fold gently until a rough ball is formed. DO NOT OVERWORK. Add more ice water if necessary, 1 tsp at a time.

Pour onto a floured surface. Divide in half for tarts. Roll 1/2 of dough out to about 1/4″ thick, and cut 2 circles about 1″ larger than your tart pans. Then roll out the other 1/2 for 2 more circles.

Press dough into pie tart pans, and crimp edges. FREEZE pie pans for about 15 min. Make a few pie dough leafs, if desired, using cutters mentioned above, using leftover dough. Freeze these for just a few minutes.

Make pie filling.

Ingredients:

3 large assorted apples – such as green apples, Fuji, or honey crisp, thinly sliced
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
juice of 1/2 of a lemon
1 tsp apple pie spice
1/4 c flour
2 Tbsp salted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine filling ingredients into a large bowl (apples, sugar, lemon zest and juice, apple pie spice). Stir together. Sprinkle with flour, and toss to combine.

Spoon filling into tart shells evenly, using all juice in the bowl. Slightly over-fill the pies, and press down. Top with pieces of butter.

Brush the bottom of the pie dough leaves with milk, and place around edges of pie. You can be creative here, and cover the whole tart, or just a few leaves on the edges. Brush rest of pie crust with milk. Sprinkle crust with cinnamon/sugar.

OPTIONAL: Top with a crumb crust made with 2 T cold butter, 1/4 c flour, and 1/8 c light brown sugar. Combine using a pastry cutter. Place a few spoonfuls onto the top of each tart. Bake for 35 – 40 min., til golden brown.