Rustic Mini Apple Pies

I love apple desserts and this one came about a little by accident. The pastry is from the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook and the filling is my own. It seems really sweet when you look at the ingredients and even tastes a little sweet when you mix it all together, however, once baked, it is great! I actually started off making something else but ended up with these wonderful little apple pies. They can be eaten warm with ice-cream but I think they taste great cold as well.

I did mix the dough and cook the apples using my Thermomix, however these can still be made without one. Of course, if you want to cheat, you can just use store bought shortcrust pastry and apples from a tin!

Rustic Mini Apple Pies

Makes 12

Pastry

110g raw sugar (if making without Thermomix, just use caster sugar)

120g butter, softened*

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

2 egg yolks

300g plain flour

3 tablespoons iced water

* If you forget to take butter out beforehand, you can soften it using microwave or just slice thinly as you add to TM.

Filling

6 apples, peeled, cored & roughly chopped**

40g butter,melted

1 tablespoon custard powder

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

** I used Granny Smith apples but you can try other varieties as well. I understand that Golden Delicious work great too.

Assembly

Cooking oil spray

1-2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Pastry

1. Place raw sugar into Thermomix bowl and mill for 10 seconds at speed 9. A friend gave me a handy tip for eliminating the dust cloud that is normally evident when milling - just place a paper towel between the lid and measuring cup as shown in the picture below.

2. Add your butter, along with the vanilla and the egg yolks and mix for 3 minutes speed 4. Scrape down sides of bowl if necessary at the end.

3. Add the flour and water and mix for 2 seconds speed 7 and then knead your dough for 1 minute (closed lid and wheat symbol).

4. Finally, remove the dough from the bowl and wrap it in some cling wrap. Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

1. Fill Thermomix bowl with about 500g water. Place roughly chopped apple into Varoma tray and place Varoma into position. Steam apples for 10-15 minutes on Varoma  Speed 2, or until apples are tender. Then set aside to cool. I chopped them up a bit more and placed them in a bowl that was slightly submerged in cold water in order to help speed up the cooling process.

2. Once cooled, add melted butter, custard powder, caster sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon and mix together until well combined.

Assembly

1. Once you are ready to work with your dough, you need to do so quickly before it softens too much. Roll the dough out between two pieces of baking paper until it is approximately 3mm in thickness - you can separate it and roll it out in two or 3 lots if you wish. Don't worry too much about the thickness - basically you just want it rolled thinly but not too thinly that it can't be picked up or filled without breaking.

2. Once rolled out, cut out circles about 8.5cm in diameter. I just used a glass for this. 

3. Spray a cupcake/muffin tin with cooking oil spray, ensuring sides and bases are all coated. Then press each circular piece of dough into one of the cupcake holes. Take care not to tear the pastry around the lower edges. However, the top edges can be a bit rustic. Mine didn't come all the way up to the top.

4. Place spoonfuls of apple mixture into each mould until full.

5. Roll out leftover dough and cut small strips out, using these to decorate top. This recipe is rustic and quick so I just used two strips crossing each other. If you want to make your pies look prettier, you can weave some strips or even use a cookie cutter and make a nice shape to sit on top.

6. Finally, just brush strips with milk and sprinkle with combined caster sugar and cinnamon.

7. Bake in pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius fan forced. Allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes then carefully remove and either serve with cream or ice-cream or place on a cooling rack to finish cooling. Enjoy - they're yummy!