Apple Pie Cookies

These apple pie cookies are stuffed with delicious homemade apple pie filling and caramel, then surrounded by flakey pie crust. These mini pies are absolutely additive, although I'm still not sure if they should be called mini pies, cookies or hand pies... Apples with a nice balance of acid and sweetness are best for baking pies. Honey Crisps, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Cortlans apples are all great choices. Use your favorite and enjoy! Never use red delicious. The recipe makes a lot of filling. You can repurpose the leftovers into extra for topping pancakes, ice cream, or snacking. It’s easiest to assemble the cookies on the prepared baking sheet as they can be difficult to transfer.

If you’re short on time you can use frozen pastry dough; pre-made caramel and/or even store bought pie filling. That said, all the components are easy to make, and you will definitely taste the difference if you take the time to make these from scratch. These mini apple pies are an autumn favorite of mine. I love the way this lattice looks and the taste is beyond! I can’t explain how delicious they are and a huge part of that is the homemade caramel. Each bite has the perfect combination of apple, caramel and flakey crunch. You can make a FAST version of this by forming the pie crust into a dumpling shape.

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 30mL
• 3 pounds apples Honey crisp, Golden Delicious, Cortland, or Mitsu
• 2/3 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling on the pie
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch nutmeg

For the Dough:

• 2 1/2 cups flour plus more for rolling
• 4 tbs granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 16 tbs unsalted butter chilled
• 4 tbs ice water
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp all-spice
• 1/2 tsp ginger

For the Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cream
• For the Caramel
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 5 tbsp butter unsalted
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt generous