Yesterday my sister and I were sitting around talking and eating and she was complaining that she was tired of her monotonous diet (no offence Tom hehe) and going through her monthly "I want something different" craving. So I promised her that when she returned from her 2 hour gym workout there would be "one surprise" waiting. So after she set out for her run to the gym, I got to work finding a recipe. I decided to do some kind of tart which I had seen Chef Michael Smith doing the other day on his cooking show, but I wanted to do something with apples because we had 6 small gala's that were going wrinkly.
So I went to Chef Michael's food blog and checked if he had a recipe for tarts or at least the dough, but no dice. So then I Google'd "muffin tin pies" and found Tracey's Culinary Adventures on blogspot and to my delight, she had posted about mini caramel apple pies! I read through her post and found a link to another blog where she got the recipe from: Baking with Susan... who is also on blogspot. I decided to follow both of these lovely ladies and I am very glad to have stumbled upon them both. Susan had the entire recipe step by step and even with some tips which was really great! I kept looking back and forth between Susan and Tracey because Tracey had scaled down the recipe so that it would work for the muffin tin. I adapted the recipe a tiny bit as i went along to make it a little more "diet friendly" for my sister but basically I left out the caramel sauce (which I WILL make next time!) and I made the crust with 2/3ds whole wheat flour. It actually worked out very well! Here are some before and after pictures:
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| Traceys blog post |
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| the end of the dough roll during lattice work |
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| The muffin tray filled and the beginnings of the lattice crust |
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| My first time doing a little crust ever.. not bad! |
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| The strips I cut for weaving.. |
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| Doesn't it just make you feel all "bakey"? :) |
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| I put a generous amount of apples and it still reduced to half.. more apples next time? |
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| The baked product... From left to right can you tell my lattice work got better?? |
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| The 12th muffin hole was originally empty but then I had dough left over.. I'd finished the apples, but improv'd with frozen fruit. I was shocked that it worked out very well! |
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| The Final Product... cooling down.. yum! |
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| Don't They Look Simply Adorable???!!! |
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| All in a row... sooo cute! |
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| Et Voix-La!! The final plated version :) |
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| *sigh* It doesn't get any better than this! |
I was shocked at how easy this was to make and I think I want to try making an entire pie next. I was surprised at how little liquid goes into the crust but then again i'm used to making pasta and pizza dough by hand not pie crust. Is there anything better than butter? I don't think so! You would think that there is a lot of sugar needed for this recipe, but in fact I only used 4 table spoons total (plus one more in the whipping cream) so not all bad. I wonder if you could substitute sugar for honey in the crust... hmmm... The apples were just cut up small and tossed in some flour, sugar, cinnamon and I added vanilla extract. Once they'd baked, the aroma and the flavour were just heavenly! I added slightly sugared whipping cream and it was just perfect.
My entire family loved it, and my sister was very surprised with this "one surprise". She had 3. It was great! I really enjoyed making this recipe and it only took 2 hours from start to finish... did you know that you have to chill buttery crust dough before you can roll it? It makes sense though since you have to use cold butter and ice water to bind it together.. I also learned that patience is a virtue that I do possess, although my cooking time went from Tracey's 25-27minutes To 40 minutes on account of the whole wheat flour.. next time I'll probably use more white.. It's all about trial and error. Never the less, I am proud to say I succeeded in making a delicious dessert that everyone could enjoy.
You can find both recipe's and posts on the blogs linked below:
http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.ca/2010/03/sms-mini-caramel-apple-pies.html
http://bakingbysue.blogspot.ca/2010/03/sweet-melissa-sunday-double-crusted.html
Thanks again to Baking With Susan and Traceys Culinary Adventures for sharing this wonderful recipe and adaptation!!!
XOXO
P.s 6 days til NANOWRIMO!!!!
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