Confession time: I love mini food and I love apples, especially crisp, sweet, crunchy Pacific Northwest apples. So it was a no brainer to combine the two to create these adorable Mini Apple Pies.
Mini Apple Pies
So, apple pie. My husband and son are both fans. For me, there’s something weird about a big huge round mound of baked apples and carbs. I think it’s the disproportionate ratio of pie filling to pie crust that I can’t seem to get on board with.
That’s why I love making mini apple pies. I’ve made mini apple pies-in-a-jar before and apple hand pies, and those are more my kind of dessert. I love the crust-to-filling ratio that you get with smaller pies. More crust, more sugar, less mushy fruit.
These adorable mini apple pies can easily be adapted to your particular tastes. Put more or less apples, more or less spice, more or less sugar, depending on how you like it.
A word first on mini pies vs. tartlets. I debated whether I should call these mini apple pies or apple tartlets. They are technically neither: I used shallow, 5″ diameter creme brulee ramekins to bake these; they have short sides which puts them in the tartlets category, but they have a full crust on top (the lattice), which puts them in the pie category.
Therefore, I’m calling them mini apple pies. Boom. Done. You may simply call them delicious.
How to Make Mini Apple Pies
To start, peel, deseed, and chop 3 green apples into small cubes.
Side note: I really don’t like extra kitchen tools. I believe a chef’s knife is all you need for most kitchen jobs. That said, I use an apple slicer when I make apple pies. It just goes faster.
Using the best kitchen tools that you have –your hands– mix apple pieces together with cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, and both sugars in a large bowl.
Unroll one of the prepared pie dough rounds and, using either a large pastry cutter or, as I did below, use the actual tartlet pan, to cut out round dough shapes for each pie.
Gently place the dough rounds into the individual pans and press against the bottom and up the sides of each pan.
Place a generous heap of filling in each tartlet pan on top of the dough.
To make the lattice top, roll out the second pre-made dough round and use a a knife or a ravioli wheel, as I did here (totally falls under the “extra kitchen tool” category, which I don’t normally like…but if you’ve got one, use it. These are great!), to cut thin, even strips.
Lay the dough strips on top of one of the pies, then turn the pan 90 degrees and place another layer of dough strips across the top to create the lattice pattern, as shown below.
Repeat the lattice patterns on all four mini pies. Brush the tops with some melted butter, and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Place mini apple pies on a baking sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Mine were done at around 25 minutes, but my oven bakes faster than most, so check yours between 25-35 minutes. I usually rotate the pan halfway through.
Once the tops are golden brown, remove from the oven. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before diving in and devouring.
Serve these with a scoop of ice cream or dollop of coconut cream or whipped cream.
Mini Apple Pies
Ingredients
- One package of two rounds of pre-made pie crust, thawed at room temperature
- 3 green apples, peeled, seeded, cut into very small pieces
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground all spice
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- Cinnamon Sugar mixture: 3 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed well with 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Grease the bottom and sides of four mini pie or tartlet pans.
- In a large bowl, combine cut apple pieces, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice until spices are evenly dispersed among the apples. Set aside.
- Unroll one of the pre-made pie crust dough rounds.
- Using a large round pastry cutter or the edges of one of the mini pie pans, cut out large circles of dough.
- Gently place each circle in the bottom of a mini pie pan and press up the sides.
- Scoop generous helpings of the spiced apple filling into each tartlet pan and spread evenly.
- Unroll the second pre-made pie crust dough. Using a pastry cutter or knife, cut strips that are slightly less than 1/2" wide and just slightly longer than the circumference of each apple pie round.
- Lay strips over the pie filling in a lattice pattern. Brush the top of one mini pie with melted butter, then immediately sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over it; repeat on remaining mini pies.
- Place prepared mini pies onto a shallow rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until the tops of the lattice pie crusts are golden brown.
- Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes out of the oven before digging in.
- Makes 4 mini apple pies.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you grow up in a house where homemade apple pie was standard comfort food? What’s your favorite fall dessert?
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a few pennies when you click on those links & purchase something from the site. Thank you for supporting this blog!
Your title says it all…these are adorable. I know people just love individual desserts; combine that love with a comfort food and you’ve hit a homerun!
Thanks so much, Barbara!
I had a hand pie today, actually, and I love them dearly. Now, I’d love to try these, if I could find my tartlet pans.
I’m with you, Marlynn – I LOVE apple season, and I am so happy we are in the thick of it. These little pies look so sweet, and I love that, since they are made in ramekins, I don’t have to come up with some fancy crimping technique for the edges.
These are too cute! And I’m right there with you – with full scale pies, it’s hard to find the goldilocks zone between crusts and filling. These mini pies are the perfect solution!
I love the idea of mini apple pies! That way you get the whole thing all to yourself! And more crust, because I love the crust!
Those are very cute! I haven’t had true pie in years but I did come up with this great apple/pear crumble last year and decided that this weekend I’ll remake it and take better photos!! ;) Apple season is SO tasty!
I love how cute mini pies are, but how did you not have a huge dollop of whipped cream or ice cream on top of these…
I grew up similarly – well, with other canned foods in place of the spam – and never did gain a big fondness for apple pie. BUT I love crisps and when I do make pie for my husband, I always do minis like this, too!