A few days ago, Luise and David of Green Kitchen Stories came to my little town to film an episode for their youtube channel. I’ve been following them for as long as I can remember and I’ve met them once before, very briefly at the book fair in Gothenburg, so it was really nice to spend a whole day with them!
We went to Äppelgården (“The Apple Farm”) in Slöinge, which was actually closed for the week, but they were kind enough to let us film there anyway. I had some leftover apples and I’ve been thinking about making apple hand pies for a while. I’d totally forgotten how time consuming it is to make mini lattice tops though. Hehe.
With that said, there’s really no need to fuss with lattice tops for these pies unless you really want to. You can simply cut out lids (that is, a simple round that you place over the filling, don’t forget to make a couple of cuts or holes for the filling to seep through) or just cut out different shapes as I did for one of them. Works like a charm!
You will most likely have some leftover dough, but it’s definitely better to have too much than too little. Check out my ‘How to make a lattice pie’-video over here.
APPLE HAND PIES
Makes 8 small pies
INGREDIENTS
PIE CRUST
- 360 g (2 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp. flaky salt
- 225 g (2 sticks) very cold salted butter
- 5-8 tbsp. ice water
FILLING & TOPPING
- 3 tbsp. (40 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp. (30 g) salted butter
- 2 cups peeled, cored and 1 x 1 cm diced apple (about 3-4 depending on size)
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
- 50 g almond paste, grated
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp. turbinado sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
PIE CRUST
- Mix together flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Use a cheese slicer, if you have one, to slice the butter thinly – if not, you can simply dice the butter with a knife. Add the sliced or diced butter to the dry ingredients, and using your fingers or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until dough is crumbly but there are still some small visible pieces of butter.
- Drizzle with ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix gently with a fork until dough just comes together, do not knead the dough.
- Form the dough into two evenly sized balls. Flatten into discs, wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least one hour but preferably overnight.
FILLING
- Place the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Place the pan over medium high heat until the sugar starts melting around the edges. Turn the heat down to low and stir gently with a wooden spoon until sugar is completely melted and golden brown. Be careful not to burn the sugar!
- Add in the butter, piece by piece, stirring between each addition.
- Stir in the diced apples (the caramel might harden at this point, but don’t worry, just keep cooking and it’ll melt again) and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Mix lemon juice and cornstarch in a small bowl and add to the mixture. Cook for 1 minute until the mixture thickens. Let cool completely, then stir in the grated almond paste.
ASSEMBLY & BAKING
- Let the dough rest for a few minutes at room temperature. Roll out one piece of the dough into a large circle about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, on a lightly floured surface. Make sure to roll and turn the dough so it doesn’t stick to the surface. Using a 9 cm (3.5 inch) cutter, cut out 8 rounds from the dough and transfer onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Cut out flowers or stars or whatever you want as decoration from the leftover dough, then wrap the leftover dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
- Roll out the other piece of dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out lids, strips for lattice or any other decorative pattern with cutters. Use up any leftover dough if needed.
- Spoon the filling onto the dough rounds, leaving a small border free from filling. Brush the border with some water, then place cutouts, lid or lattice on top of the filling. Press gently around the edges to seal, or use a fork to seal. Transfer the pies to the freezer for 15 minutes, meanwhile preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).
- Whisk together the egg with a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Brush the pies with the egg wash, then sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. Let cool a little, then serve with vanilla ice cream.
What beautiful pies!! I used to make apple pies all the time, but I’ve never tried to make the lattice work. Really gorgeous.
Thank you so much Alissa! Lattice is fun to make, but quite an effort when small like this 🙂
I love these photos, and those cute little designs! I’m impressed just how perfectly they turned out, too. 😀
Thank you so much, Ellie! They were so much fun to make and eat 🙂
Stunning!! Your lattices are always so on point! These pies are so cute and little!
Thank you so much Gail!! 🙂
Hi Linda
I love your blog.
As per this recipe should the dough be a little dry?
Thank you so much Shaima! 🙂 When do you mean the dough is dry, after adding the water? If it feels dry, you should add a little more water. The water is the tricky part because it varies so much how you need to add to the dough, depending on the butter, humidity, heat etc. It definitely shouldn’t be wet either 🙂 Let me know if you have more questions!
Apple pie is delicious no matter which recipe we take on, I’m sure this will be great as well!
Apple pie is for sure, one of my favorite things too 🙂 Thank you Isadora!
Wow these pies look so beautiful. I wish I can just get them off the screen. Love them.
Thank you so much! 🙂
Hej Linda,
I do love your blog and your work is truly poetic to me! That’s why I just got your pie book =)
I have just been baking these adorable apple hand pies. I was not aware how troublesome it can be to melt sugar. As I just learned is a clean pan essential otherwise the caramel will crystallize. You still might use the rest of it but I ended up adapting the classic apple pie filling from your book. Which turned out really nicely.
As you have written there would be left over dough I pinched a bit too much from it and could only neatly cover the pies enough 😉 so actually perfect..
Thanks a lot for this recipe and the lovely inspiration for the lattice! I love to do lattice pies since I have learned from you how the magic works 😉 Thank you!
x resa
Hi Resa, sorry for my late response! I saw your comment just now! So glad you improvised with the filling and it was a success 🙂 Yes, a completely clean and dry pan is a must and a heavy bottomed one is good too or the sugar will burn very easily. Some make caramel by cooking down water and sugar but I find that to be difficult. I guess some will disagree! Thank you for your kind comment! x
Hello Linda,
Which apples do you suggest using for these lovely little treats?
Thanks so much; I just recently found your site and am loving it!
Dee
Thanks so much for your kind words! I’d suggest using any apples you like, as long as they’re not mealy like Red Delicious or or overripe apples. I like Golden Delicious that are more green than yellow, otherwise my favorites are Swedish varieties! x Linda