If you like apple pie, you will love these Mini apple pies baked in 6" pie pans. It makes the cutest apple pie for two.
Mini Apple Pies
On a recent trip to Crate & Barrel, hoping to trade all of my money for all the pretty dishes, I stumbled upon two mini pie dishes. They were 6" across, which is the size I use for all of my small pies, and the edges were fluted. Plus, they're perfectly white.
So what any person would do I snatched up two mini pie dishes, skipped to the register, and headed home to peel apples. These pie plates were always meant to be mini apple pies.
What Apples to Use
It's amazing how much you can learn about apples when preparing an apple pie recipe. At a visit to my farmer's market, I grabbed a random bag of apples labeled 'local' from the farmer's market. When those apples emerged crispy from the oven, I started googling "best apples to use in apple pie."
Here's what I found:
- If we were baking regular sized pies, there would be more wiggle room when choosing apple varieties, I think. But, since we're baking mini pies with a lesser amount of crust that browns faster in the oven, we really have to make sure the apples are going to soften in our 30 minute bake time.
- For that reason, I'm only recommending a mix of Golden Delicious and Braeburn apples for making these mini apple pies. This article by Serious Eats that ranks apples for pie are my new favorite food geek article.
I feel like we're going to end the year with lots of pie recipes, is this okay with you? You might also like my apple crisp for two recipe!
Notes
- Each 6" mini pie plate makes 4 mini slices of pie. Personally, I can eat two mini slices at a time, which is like 1 normal size piece, except with double the amount of crust (which feels like a total bonus!).
- If you're really a household of two, I suggest freezing the other pie for your next apple pie craving (unbaked, of course).
I have a whole collection of apple desserts for two on this site, but my absolute favorite (after this recipe for mini apple pies, of course) is my crockpot apple butter.
What do you think about these Mini Apple Pies? Let us know in the comments below. And make sure to share your creations by tagging me on Instagram!
Mini Apple Pies
Two mini 6" apple pies for two.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 2 ounces of shortening (cold)
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold)
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup ice water
For the apple filling:
- 6 small apples (preferably Golden Delicious and Braeburn apples)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ lemon, zested & juiced
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 large egg yolk, beaten (for egg wash)
- coarse sugar, for sprinkling on top (optional)
Instructions
- First, make the crust: dice the shortening and butter into ½" cubes and place on a plate in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt, and whisk lightly to combine.
- Add the chilled shortening and butter to the flour mixture, and use two forks or a pastry blender to combine. Incorporate the fats into the flour until the pieces are slightly smaller than peas. Don't over mix.
- Evenly drizzle the ice water over the mixture in two batches, stirring gently to combine. The dough should start to clump together (but not seem overly wet), but there should be no dry patches of flour.
- Scrape the dough into a large ball, flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- When the dough only has about 30 minutes left of chill time, peel, core and slice the apples into ¼" slices.
- Place the sliced apples in a bowl, and stir in the sugar, flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and all of the spices. Set aside to rest while you roll out the dough.
- After the dough has chilled for 2 hours, lightly dust your counter with flour. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, leaving 2 slightly larger than the other two (these will be the bottom crusts).
- Preheat the oven to 375.
- Roll out the two larger pieces of dough to about 9" in diameter to fit inside the 6" pie pans, leaving plenty draping over the edges for crimping and sealing. Drape the bottom crust in the pie plate, and set aside.
- Next, roll out the two smaller pieces of dough to about 8" in diameter, and using a pizza wheel, cut 10-11 strips of dough that are 1" wide.
- If you want to make a plain lattice, leave the dough strips as-is. If you'd like to braid the dough, cut 3 thin pieces of dough from 1" strips. If you want to alternate thin and thick pieces of dough, make the thin ones by cutting the 1" strips in half.
- When you're ready to lattice the top of the pies, pour the apples into the pie pans. Pack the apples in very tightly. Be sure to include the accumulated juice in the bottom of the bowl.
- Dice the remaining tablespoon of butter and spread it evenly on top of the apples.
- Drape the strips of dough on top of the apples in one direction. To make a lattice, alternate flipping pieces back to weave in a strip of dough in the other direction (it's pretty hard to describe how to do this using words--search for a how-to video on YouTube, k?).
- Once the top of pies are latticed, trim the excess dough from the edges, and pinch the bottom and top pie crust together. Use your fingers to crimp around the edges to seal in the apples completely.
- Finally, beat the egg yolk with a splash of water, and brush it over the surface of the pie crust.
- Sprinkle coarse sugar on top the pies.
- Place the pies on a baking sheet, and slide them into the oven.
- Bake them for ~30 minutes, and be sure to check to see if the crust is browning too much at around 20-25 minutes. If so, cover it loosely with foil to shield it from the heat of the oven.
- After 30 minutes of baking, use a knife to poke some apples and see if they're done. The pie is done when the apples are fork-tender, and the filling is bubbling, about 30-40 minutes (use a foil shield as much as you need to).
- Let the pies cool completely before attempting to slice and serve.
Notes
- Each 6" mini pie plate makes 4 mini slices of pie. Personally, I can eat two mini slices at a time, which is like 1 normal size piece, except with double the amount of crust (which feels like a total bonus!).
- If you're really a household of two, I suggest freezing the other pie for your next apple pie craving (unbaked, of course). If I had a mini pie waiting for me in my freezer at all times, I think I would probably be one notch happier. But, I guess we'll never know because my family finished these two mini pies in a day and a half.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 959Total Fat: 55gSaturated Fat: 30gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 200mgSodium: 692mgCarbohydrates: 108gFiber: 8gSugar: 37gProtein: 12g
Peter Gordon says
Christina;
Love your meals for two. I noticed in this recipe your nutritional analysis is "Amount Per Serving: CALORIES: 3341 TOTAL FAT: 214g CARBOHYDRATES: 310g PROTEIN: 42g" . I suspect that is the total for both pies. Perhaps you meant to divide by 8?
Keep up the good work!
Amaadi Yeboah says
I really like apple pies and your recipes are all great. Can't wait to try this one out!
Joe Todaro says
Say , I was wondering - can I substitute vegetable shortening for the butter ? Can I use 14 ounces of shortening - I thought you mini allow pies used only shortening. I have made them before and I don’t remember any butter just shortening. They were delicious and I want to make them again! Thanks
Christina Lane says
Hi Joe, I think you're thinking of my mini peach pie recipe. And yes, you can sub it.
Dawn Oberbrunner says
Delicious!
Camila says
Hey Christina! I'm looking forward to making this recipe, but I was wondering - I want to make your blueberry mini hand held pies as well, and given that we are a household of two and i really love making different recipes instead of repeating, I wanted to use half the dough in this recipe for the apple pie and then re-use the other half to make only 3 mini handheld pies. I noticed the crust recipes are slightly different (that one has sugar and no shortening, and slightly less flour). Would you say it would be better to use this crust for both or that crust for both? I'm assuming the reason that one has sugar is because there's a smaller ration of filling to crust, but I wouldn't mind a sweeter crust for these pies :)
sharon guenther says
I made this yesterday. Apple Pie is wonderful but for our taste preference I would leave out the allspice and add nutmeg. Next time . I would reduce the cloves also. Crust was perfect! My first time making a pie.
Elisabeth says
Hurray! I've been meaning to use my mini pie dishes for YEARS! Your recipe gave me the courage to try. I made 1/2 a recipe because there really is just two of us, and it was perfect! I found that 1 lb apples was a good amount for 1 mini pie, and I tossed the slices with the lemon juice, flour, sugar, and spices, and microwaved them for 3 minutes. After the apples, cooled completely, they went into the crust. No worries about undercooked apples and overcooked pie! SUPER!