These Muffin Tin Apple Pies are the perfect handheld dessert. Mini Apple Pies are soft baked and stuffed with flavorful apple pie filling. One of the very best things about this Mini Apple Pie recipe is that these delicious treats cook in less than 30 minutes.
My grandmother lived on a farm and always made pies, especially apple pies. As she used say what else was she going to do with all of those apples outside.
Boy oh boy did she have apples. We used to love climbing all of the trees to pick them too. I close my eyes I can still smell the fresh apple pie smell as I walk inside her home.
Those were the days. Memories I shall take to the grave. Bottom line is I still make pies and think of her every time I do it. I just don't make whole pies as much as I used to anymore.
Now I make these mini pies or my Apple or Blueberry Hand Pies, aka Mini Pocket Pies, instead. These mini pocket pies are totally homemade unlike these wonderful mini apple pies I use store bought, refrigerated pie dough.
Sometimes, I even use store bought apple pie filling because doing that, makes this easy dessert even easier. Then I can put these tasty treats together in no time a all.
Satisfies the craving every time.
Whether it's just my husband and myself, it's poker night or if we're having a get together of any kind, big or small, these muffin tin apple pies are always a hit.
It's actually nice to have an individual, handheld, bite sized version of the popular classic dessert. Just wait until you try them.
Can I freeze Mini apple pies
Absolutely you can freeze these mini apple pies. Well, that is if you manage not to eat them all within a couple of days. These mini apple pies do not stay around long at my house at all.
Freezing mini apple pies is easy to do, but first things first, you need to make sure that you allow your mini apple pies to cool completely before you wrap them to freeze.
To freeze your mini apple pies, I recommend freezing them individually. To do this, you will need to wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. I suggest double wrapping your mini apple pies just to better protect them in the freeze. Once you have wrapped your mini apples to be totally covered, you can transfer for pies to a freezer safe container.
When you are choosing a freezer safe container for your apple pies, I suggest using a rigid sided container. This will help prevent your mini apple pies from getting crushed while they are in the freezer. A freezer bag will also work, but you will need to be careful to prevent your mini pies from getting destroyed in the freezer.
What should I top this Mini Apple Pie Recipe with
There are many different ways that you can use to top this sweet mini apple pie recipe with. Here is a short list of some of my favorite ways to top my pies..
- Caramel sauce
- Whipped cream
- Vanilla ice cream
- Ground cinnamon
- Apple pie spice
What type of apples should I use in this recipe
You can use any type of apple that is your favorite to make these apple pies. I personally do not like to use a Red Delicious apple because they are already so soft. I am listing a few of my favorite apples to use to make apple pie.
- Granny Smith
- Pink Lady
- Cripps Pink
- Gala Apples
- Honeycrisp
- Jonagold
- Braeburn
- Jazz
Why do I need to add tapioca to my mini pies
Tapioca is used in these mini apple pies to help thicken the apple pie filling. Apples can be watery especially when they are baked. The tapioca helps prevent the water the apples release from causing your entire pie to become watery. Trust me, if there is one thing that you do not want, it's a runny apple pie.
Muffin Tin Apple Pies Ingredients
- refrigerated pie crusts
- apples, ideally granny smith
- sugar
- brown sugar
- tapioca
- flour
- cinnamon
How to make Mini Apple Pies
Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Lay pre-made pie crusts on a nonstick surface.
Using 4-inch circles or cookie cutters to cut 12 mini-crusts out of the dough.
You will have to ball up remaining dough and re-roll out dough to get 12 crusts.
Rolled out remaining crust and cut into 48 3-inch strips to be used later. That being said you can also cut a dozen, smaller rounds to go over top of each pie, remembering to cut about 3 slits across the top of the pie to allow steam to escape from filling while cooking.
Place crust circles in a greased muffin tin, gently pressing them down to fill the muffin holes.
In a large mixing bowl, combine apples, sugar, brown sugar, tapioca, flour, and cinnamon.
Stir until apples are evenly coated.
Evenly spoon apple mixture into the 12 crusts.
Place the 3-inch strips of crust (already cut) and lay them across each mini pie.
Gently squeeze the ends to connect them to the crust.
Make egg wash by whisking either one large egg with 1 tablespoon of water or milk or an egg yolk with a tablespoon of heavy cream. For those of you that follow this blog you know I LOVE to provide choices.
Dust with sanding sugar which has bigger crystals than granulated sugar but not as large as coarse sugar. Sanding sugar is used for decorating and comes in so many colors, reflects light, and if desired will add a nice sweetness to your crust.
A sprinkling of cinnamon sugar (1 tablespoon sugar to ¼ teaspoon cinnamon if you like cinnamon and ½ teaspoon if you're like me and LOVE it!) will work great also or just plain old cinnamon will also do the trick too.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust begins to turn a light golden brown.
Why do I need to add tapioca to my mini pies
Tapioca is used in these mini apple pies to help thicken the apple pie filling. Apples can be watery especially when they are baked. The tapioca helps prevent the water the apples release from causing your entire pie to become watery.
Trust me, if there is one thing that you do not want, it's a runny apple pie.
Pro-Tips:
- For a delicious flavor mix together sweet and sour apples
- Keep your pie crust cold before using for a flaky result.
- I made a lattice crust, you can use another circle and make a full crust if you prefer that. Just remember to cut slits in your top crust.
More Delicious Recipes
Apple cream cheese crescent ring
Brandied Caramel Apple Milkshake
Muffin Tin Apple Pies Video
Muffin Tin Apple Pies
Equipment
- 4 inch round cookie cutter or glass
Ingredients
- 1 pkg (14.1 oz) refrigerated pie crusts
- 6 cups apples, peeled and chopped
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon tapioca
- 1 teaspoon flour
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
Options
For serving
- caramel sauce
- whipped cream
- ice cream
Egg Wash 1
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon water or milk
Egg Wash 2
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Instructions
- Get out and measure your ingredients.
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Lay pre-made pie crusts on a nonstick surface.
- Using a 4-inch circle, cut 12 mini-crusts out. You will have to ball up remaining dough and re-roll to get 12 crusts.
- Roll out remaining crust and cut into 48 3-inch strips to be used later.
- Place your chopped apples inside a large mixing bowl.
- Add sugar, brown sugar, tapioca, flour, and cinnamon.
- Stir until apples are evenly coated.
- Place crust circles in a greased muffin tin, gently pressing them down to fill the muffin holes. Evenly spoon mixture into the 12 crusts.
- Place the 3-inch strips of crust (already cut) and lay them across each mini pie. Gently squeeze the ends to connect them to the crust.
- Make an egg wash by whisking either one large egg with 1 tablespoon of water or milk or an egg yolk with a tablespoon of heavy cream. Brush on top of crust.
- Dust with sanding sugar which has bigger crystals than granulated sugar but not as large as coarse sugar. Sanding sugar is used for decorating and comes in so many colors, reflects light, and if desired will add a nice sweetness to your crust.
- A sprinkling of cinnamon sugar (1 tablespoon sugar to ¼ teaspoon cinnamon if you like cinnamon and ½ teaspoon if you're like me and LOVE it!) will work great also or just plain old cinnamon will also do the trick too.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust begins to lightly brown.
- Remove from oven and after 5 minutes place apple pies on a rack to cool
- Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, maybe some caramel sauce too. Enjoy every bite.
Notes
- For a delicious flavor mix together sweet and sour apples
- Keep your pie crust cold before using for a flaky result.
- I made a lattice crust, you can use another circle and make a full crust if you prefer that. Just remember to cut slits in your top crust.
Nutrition
Heather says
Happy Thanksgiving. I was about to make this but I wanted to know did you have to cook the apples a little bit before you put them in the pie shells to bake? I didn't know if they cooked enough by par cooking them
Karin and Ken says
I don’t recommend cooking them before af all. We love how they turn out without any additional cooking. Happy thanksgiving to you too! I hope you try these. We love them and I hope you enjoy them too! All the best. Karin