Muffin Tin Apple Pies make your favorite classic fall dessert even better. How can you not love minis? These mini pies are the perfect portion size, look so dang cute, and are so easy to serve. With a flaky, buttery pie crust and thick, caramelized apple pie filling, these are perfect for any seasonal gathering!
Fully Homemade Muffin Tin Apple Pies
- 10-minute buttery pie dough
- 10-minute brown sugar cinnamon apple filling
- customizable pie design
- mini serving size made in standard muffin tins
Buttery Pie Crust
- Cold Butter: The trick to the pie crust is using cold butter. After years of using room temperature butter in everything, cold butter genuinely terrifies me. It's also harder to work with. BUT, the success of your dough depends on using butter that has come straight from the fridge.
- Adding the Butter into the Dough: After whisking the dry ingredients, you'll add the cold butter into the mix. If you don't have a food processor, I like to use my hands to massage the butter into the dry ingredients because it's actually less messy than using a wooden spoon... as crazy as that sounds. You'll want the butter to disperse into the mixture without it fully breaking down. You want butter specks in your finished dough, meaning you can't be too thorough when mixing. You can use a fork to smash and squish the butter into the flour mixture, use an actual pastry cutter, or use your hands to squeeze the butter and mixture between your fingers.
- Egg Yolk: Once you have crumby butter chunks that aren't too fine, add the egg yolk into the mixture, using a spatula or a wooden spoon to fully incorporate it.
- Ice Cold Water: When the egg yolk is fully mixed in, add 2 tablespoons of ice cold water. This will help to smooth your dough. You should be able to form the dough into a ball and squish it without it breaking into crumb pieces. If you squeeze a piece of the dough between your pointer finger and thumb, it should not fall apart. It will be SLIGHTLY sticky but still look rather dry. If your dough looks too dry and crumbly, add another tablespoon of ice cold water until you reach the consistency previously described.
- Divide the Dough: You'll divide the dough, roughly, into ⅓ and ⅔ portions. Form the dough into disks, wrapping them plastic cling wrap before sticking them in the fridge for 30 minutes.
The Filling
This filling is incredible. It is made by dicing apples, heating the pieces with butter until they are softened, adding brown sugar and cinnamon, and letting a thick, flavored goodness come to life!
This isn't too finicky. You know what soft apples are. You should be able to squish the apple pieces down with a wooden spoon without much trouble... you really can't go wrong. As long as your apples aren't super crispy or aren't burned... you're good to go! I gave time ideas in the recipe, but every stovetop is different, and every person will cut the apples differently.
Pie Crust Designs
I am not a professional whatsoever. Do not be intimidated by the designs on top of the pies. I watched some videos and looked up some how-to pictures to help me find some inspiration and direction, but I truly just let my imagination run wild when making the designs. This is a great resource for pie designs!
You can braid the dough using three thin strands of dough, can make a lattice design, can use cookie cutters or pastry tools to make designs, and can honestly just leave it plain if you prefer.
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Muffin Tin Mini Apple Pies
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Chill Time: 30 minutes:
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 10 pies 1x
- Category: Pies, Mini Pies, Hand Pies, Apple Pie, Fall
- Cuisine: American
Description
A classic and most widely communal dessert turned into mini serving sizes, these Muffin Tin Mini Apple Pies are these Muffin Tin Mini Apple Pies are the perfect portion size, look so cute, and are so easy to serve! Apple Pie has never been better with flaky, buttery crust and caramelized apple filling!
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsps granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (sliced into ⅛ or ¼ inch pieces)
- 3-5 Tablespoons ice cold water
- 1 egg yolk, cold
For the Filling
- 6 medium Grannysmith Apples
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 teaspoons corn starch
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar
For the Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons water
Instructions
For the Dough
- In a tall bowl, whisk flour, sugar, and salt together.
- Add butter and use a fork, pastry cutter, or your hands to incorporate butter into the dry mixture. If using a fork, press the butter pieces into the flour mixture, squeezing until the butter pieces push through the tines. If using your hands, squeeze the butter pieces and flour between your fingers. If using a pastry cutter, use as directed.
- When the butter begins to disperse, the fine crumbs have started to disappear, and the mixture has thicker, butter-filled crumbs, add the egg yolk. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until fully incorporated.
- Begin to add ice cold water by the tablespoon. Use a spatula to cut the water into the dough or a wooden spoon to speed the mixing process. Mixture should get smoother. You should be able to squeeze a piece of the dough between your fingers without the dough falling apart into crumbs. It will have a shimmer to it but will still look dry.
- Divide the dough into ⅓ and ⅔ portions. Form the dough into thin, flat disks, and wrap each portion in cling wrap. Place the disks in the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the Filling
- Dice apples into thin chunks. You don’t want massive pieces, both in width and length, as these are mini pieces. The thicker the pieces are, the longer you will need to heat them to soften them. The size will not change the taste, only the texture!
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, add butter and chopped apples. Heat for about 7 minutes until apples are soft but still sturdy. Stir with a wooden spoon to ensure that apples do not burn. When the apples are done, you will still need a knife to break apart the apple pieces, but you should be able to push the apple pieces with a wooden spoon. You don’t want them to be too soft at this stage, as they will continue to be on the stove for some time and will bake in the oven. However, you DO NOT want crisp apples at this point. If you need more or less time, no worries! Heating works differently for every stove and your apple pieces may vary in size!
- Add brown sugar, corn starch, and cinnamon. Allow mixture to come to a simmer before lowering heat slightly. Stir consistently to ensure nothing is burning. Heat for about 5 minutes. Mixture should have a thin consistency and be caramel-color. Apples will be soft, very easy to push down with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
To Assemble the Pies
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Thoroughly spray a muffin tin to ensure that you can remove the pies after they are baked.
- Roll out the ⅔ portion of the dough to ⅛ thickness. This will seem very thin.
- Use a cup, cookie cutter, or pastry tool to create 3.5/4 inch circles.
- Add the dough circles to the muffin tin, pushing the dough to the bottom of the pan and making sure it spreads to completely cover the sides of the tin.
- Add about 2 tablespoons of the apple mixture to each individual pie.
- Roll out the ⅓ portion of dough to be ⅛ inch thick. Use a pastry tool, knife, or pizza cutter to shape the dough into designs. For the majority of my pies, I took two long, thin pieces of dough, wrapped them around each other, and cut the piece into slices to lay over the tops of my pies. You can braid, make a lattice design, or use cutters to top the pies!
- Mix the egg and water together to create the egg wash. Use a pastry brush or clean paint brush to top the pies with the egg wash.
- Bake the pies at 350 until the tops turn golden brown. This will be 18-22 minutes. Keep an eye on the pies, though, as you don’t want the tops to be overbaked and dried out.
- Let the pies cool for 10 minutes before using a knife to run around the rim of each pie. This will help to separate the pie from the tin if it isn’t already. After another 5 minutes, carefully flip the muffin tin over a cooling rack to help remove the pies from the tin.
- Serve warm. Reheat in the microwave for 10 seconds if they have cooled too much. Top with ice cream, caramel sauce, or enjoy as is!
- Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Keywords: Apple Pie, Mini Apple Pie, Fall, Fall Baking, Muffin Tin Apple Pie
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