Mini Apple Pies

Adam and I are quite good at not wasting food. We try not to throw much away. If something is on the brink of being past it's best, I try and use it in something. Meat gets made into a stew or curry or pasta sauce and frozen, old veg is hurriedly added to that night's dinner or juiced, bananas become banana bread and apples generally get thrown into a crumble.

Last night, we had two apples that were past their prime. No good for just biting into, but still good enough to bake with! I decided to depart with my usual norm of apple crumble, and make apple pie instead. I have to admit, I'm not brilliant with pastry though. Tastes good, but I always manage to break the crusts. So I decided to make mini apple pies, in the hopes that would be easier!



Ingredients:

Makes six mini pies

Crust:

130g self raising flour
50g icing sugar
70g butter
1 egg yolk

Filling:

2 medium apples
1 tbsp brown sugar
Pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon

Method

Prepare the pastry. Add the flour, butter and icing sugar to a food processor and pulse until combined and resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, using a knife cut the butter into the flour. Lightly beat the egg yolk, add to the crumbs and stir to combine. Shape into a ball, cover and put in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes.

Core and peel the apples and add to a small saucepan with the sugar and nutmeg or cinnamon (I used nutmeg but either are good!). Add about a quarter cup of water and simmer over low heat, stirring often, until the apples have softened and the water has pretty much gone - you don't want the mixture to be too soggy. I like apples in baked goods to still have a bit of bite but if you prefer softer apples, double the amount of water and cook for longer.

Grease the pie dish, I used a Yorkshire pudding tin for mini apple pies, you could also use a bun/cupcake tin. Roll out the pastry to about half a centimetre thick. Using a pastry cutter or the top of a glass, cut out circles from the dough, you'll need two for each pie. Put the first circles in the bottom, spoon in the apple pie filling (I heaped mine a little, I like a lot of apple!). Prick holes into the pastry lids, then use them to cover the pies. Take a fork and press down the edges.

Bake at 170 for about 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them, you want the pastry to be golden brown but they can burn quickly!

And as if that wasn't enough, you could always add a little cream:

The finished product!

My dried apple rings are ready!



I made these for a Christmas hamper that is to be raffled off for work, so I tried to package them up nicely! I put them in a clean, sterilised jar then tied a square of fabric around the top with wool. I hope whoever wins the hamper enjoys them (I snuck one out to try and they're lovely)!

Dried Apple Rings

This time of year, apples are generally at their best. At work, we were recently given a massive bag of them. We let the kids do apple bobbing on Halloween, but as we're doing a hamper to raffle off at Christmas time, I said I would bring any apples that were left home to make something for the hamper with.



These are incredibly easy to make and require very little effort! You just have to keep a bit of an eye on them.

What you need:

4 apples
1 lemon or lime

Method:

Wash and core your apples, and remove any bruised bits.



Slice into rings about 3mm in width. They need to be fairly thin, and fairly uniform in size so they dry at an even rate. Put them in a bowl and squeeze over the juice of one lemon or lime, and toss to coat. The lemon/lime stops the apples from going really brown.



String the apple rings, and hang them up to dry. You need somewhere warm but that has a good airflow too. It's important to make sure the apple rings aren't touching.



I put my apple rings over the radiator vent in the kitchen - it's warm but a lot of air circulates as it's close to the back door. Leave them to dry for about a week or so, but remember to just keep an eye on them, make sure they don't slide together.