Fun-sized apple pies

Sleepy eyed and hungry, I stumbled into the kitchen this morning searching the refrigerator for breakfast. I suddenly felt panicked over apples. Yes, apples. We have overabundance of them from Chris' mom's visit to Townsend Brother's Fruit Farm a couple of weeks ago. I'd say we started out with two-or-so dozen, and well, that number hasn't gone down much... the two of us can only eat so many apples before we're just over them. I would hate to see all of them go bad, so I googled a few recipes.

There are so many 'appley' desserts out there, but these were just too darn cute to pass up. I'm not big on apple pie (unless the crust has sugary, goo-like topping and the apples are soft and sweet) but guess what?! This country girl surprised herself. I made six mean, delicious apples pies all by myself, from scratch. Here's the recipe! 

Fun-sized Apple Pies

(makes 6)

*Note that most baked goods are more fun and awesome in cupcake form.

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup white all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. cold water
1 egg with a splash of water (for eggwash to brown the crust)

Filling

3 medium-sized apples, peeled and sliced into small pieces

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 cup white all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

dash of salt

Directions

-Preheat your oven to 345 degrees F.

-In a medium-sized bowl mix the flour and butter together. Sprinkle the cold water over the mixture and stir together until the dough pulls together and away from the sides of the bowl. Roll the dough into a ball, and place it in the refrigerator to firm for about 20 minutes.
-Mix together all of the filling ingredients and stir until the dry ingredients are well incorporated with the apples.
-Take your dough out of the refrigerator. On a floured surface roll it out until it is thin. Cut out two circles, one large and one small (I used a small bowl and a mason jar lid as guides).
-Take the larger dough circle, press it into the muffin pan, and score the bottom with a fork. Fill it with the apple mixture so that it comes over the top of the pan. Place the smaller circle on top of the pie, and pinch the bottom and top dough together. Score the top with a knife and brush with the egg wash (I also brushed on extra filling goo).
-Continue the process until you’ve made six pies.
-Place a sheet of aluminum foil underneath the muffin pan to catch any liquid that may fall. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

-Allow them cool for about 15 minutes before removing them from the pan. I had to coax them out with a knife.

Like I said, I've never baked a homemade pie before, and I'd imagine it's a much easier process to bake one big pie instead of six little ones- but where's the fun in that? These are portable, adorable and delicious. AND you can totally eat a whole pie (or two, or six) by yourself without feeling super guilty about it.

P.s. I only ate two of them. :)