Caramel Apple Cutie Pies
These can be baked in 2-4 five inch small pans or one large 9 inch pan
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup chilled butter (cubed)
- ½ cup ice water
Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter (salted if you'd like your caramel to have a savory tang)
- ½ cup heavy cream
Apple Filling
- 7-8 apples, (any kind you prefer) peeled, cored, and sliced thin.
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1½ cups flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 egg (for use in washing the crust to give it that shiny glow)
- 2 Tbsp milk (for egg wash)
- optional: *handful of chopped walnuts optional. About 1/4 cup.
Instructions
Pie Crust Directions
- In a large mixing bowl combine flour and salt, then cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add ice water a bit at a time until dough forms a firm ball.
- Wrap in plastic or place in a covered bowl and refrigerate overnight (or 4 hours in the freezer if you're in a pinch).
- Divide dough into 4 equal pieces
- Roll out all 4 pieces into circles to about 1/8 of an inch to fit two 5 inch pie pans.
- Place your dough into the pie pans and press your edges in a decorative manner. I like to crimp the dough around the periphery so that it has a nice scalloped edge.
- Take a fork and poke holes into the bottom and sides of the dough to prevent bubbling.
- Place the pie pans into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to get the butter to firm up once again and keep the dough from losing shape in the oven.
- preheat oven to 375°
- At this point you're going to want to blind bake 2 of your pie crusts so that the bottom of your pie isn't soggy or undercooked when your pie is ready to eat. This process is super simple. (Keep two of the circles refrigerated during this process. You can keep them from drying out by covering them with parchment paper, top and bottom.)
- Place a layer of parchment paper over the bottom of your pie and extend up over the sides.
- Fill the center of the pie with dry beans or rice.
- Bake shell for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and the beans or rice. Place back in the oven for 10 minutes.
Caramel Sauce Directions
- Pour sugar into a medium-size saucepan over a medium to low heat. Stir constantly until sugar melts, brown and bubbling.
- Quickly add butter and stir until butter is completely melted. *Use caution when adding the butter! The melted sugar will bubble extra once the butter is added. I like to wear long sleeves or gloves when doing this step.
- Keep stirring constantly and slowly add heavy cream. Once cream is added let sit for about 1 minute while boiling once again. Bubbling mixture will rise in the pan.
- Turn off the stove and place the saucepan onto a cooling rack until close to room temperature.
Apple Filling Directions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- In a large bowl add apple slices, lemon, sugar, flour, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. If you've decided to use the chopped walnuts, add them during this step.
- Fold together all ingredients with a spatula until well combined. Fill the two pie pans with the apple mixture (inside of the crust that has been blind baked).
- Drizzle 1/4 cup of caramel into each pie (You'll want to save the rest of the caramel to drizzle over individual slices. Trust me, this will be amazing.)
- Carefully place the uncooked circles of dough over the top of the pie and crimp the top crust along the rim of the pie pan. With a sharp knife cut four slices (1 inch each) into the center of the pie crust, an equal distance from one another.
- Mix the egg and milk to make the egg wash.
- With a baker's pastry brush (my preference is the silicone variety) or with a napkin rolled tight, dip into egg mixture and gently wash the top of the crust on both cutie pies.
- Sprinkle some turbinado sugar on the crust.
- Place pies onto a baking sheet and then into the oven.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until the apple mixture is bubbling.
- Set pies out to cool for an hour or two.Be sure to use your caramel reserves for extra drizzles.