These tasty little pies made their way to the big city for Pie Party Live a few weeks ago.  For such a small bite they carry big flavor.  Here’s the recipe as promised.

My original recipe was way too sweet for my liking so I tweaked the ingredients to tone it down.  I also created “designer” pie crust tops by using a stamp set.  It’s important to use a pie crust with shortening for the stamp design to bake into the crust and maintain their shape.

Here’s what you’ll need…  4 inch round cookie cutter, heart or star cookie cutters, muffin/cupcake pan, parchment paper or wax paper, stamp collection.

Pie Filling:

3 cups of apples, sliced into thin wedges (I used Cortland & Jonagold apples)

1/2 cup caramel

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pie Crust: Sylvia’s Perfect Pie Crust a Tasty Kitchen recipe

1-1/2 cups Crisco vegetable shortening

3 cups all-purpose Flour

1 whole egg

5 tablespoons cold water

1 tablespoon White Vinegar

1 teaspoon coarse salt

2 tablespoons of heavy cream

1 tablespoon raw sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

For the Filling:

Peel, core and slice apples into thin wedges.  In a bowl, gently mix together the apples, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla extract, caramel and salt, set aside until ready to use.

For the Pie Crust:

NOTE: This pie crust recipe yields 3 – 9 inch pie crusts.  For the Individual pies we are making today you will only need 1 of the crusts.  Freeze remaining pie crust for use at a later date.

Grease muffin/cupcake pan with shortening or butter sprinkled with flour to prevent sticking.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and crisco, mix with a pastry cutter until it resembles a coarse meal. Beat the egg and pour into flour and shortening mixture. Add the cold water, vinegar and salt, stirring gently together until all ingredients are mixed well.

Take the dough and make three separate balls, place each ball into a Ziploc bag or plastic wrap, flatten each ball to 1/2 inch thickness. Seal your bags and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.  You can freeze the dough for use at a later date. Allow to thaw 15 – 20 minutes.

Working on the bottom pie crust layer, roll out the crust, taking two pieces of parchment paper or wax paper, place one sheet on your working surface, flour the surface of the parchment paper, place dough in the center, cover with the other piece of parchment paper.

Beginning at the center start rolling to the outer edges, rotating the dough as you go around, continue rolling until the pie crust is about 10 inches in circumference. Using a 4 inch round cookie cutter,  cut out 5 to 6 molds, as many as you can get.  Remove pie crust gently and place in muffin/cupcake pan, press the dough against the corners of pan.  Repeat until all the muffins/cupcakes are lined with pie crust dough.

For the designer crust on top, roll out the remaining dough, using a heart or star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out pie crust tops.

Take your stamp and press thoroughly onto the cookie cutout creating your designer pie crust.  I used a heart cookie cutter with an oven fresh and spatula stamp, (see below).

There should be plenty of pie crust dough to create all the designer pie crust tops.

Spoon apple pie filling into muffin/cupcake pies, filling to the top, place the top layer of your designer heart-shaped crusts atop.

Bake at 375  for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden in color.  If your pies are browning, snugly cover with aluminum foil so the top and edges don’t burn.  Remove from oven, let cool on a wire rack.  Once cooled, using a knife gently loosen each pie from the pan and place on a serving dish.

Eat immediately – these little sweets are bite sized so they disappear fast!