Originally posted September 07, 2014

Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies

Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies by Sarah Xiong

I use Rose's recipe for her All-American Apple pie with some adjustments. This recipe takes a bit of work and assembling but the super cute, very portable presentation makes up for it.

Ingredients

  • CRUST
  • 2 sticks of butter, cubed and frozen
  • 6.5 oz cream cheese, cubed and frozen
  • 11 oz ap flour
  • 3 oz cake flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tsp cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp ice water
  • SALTED CARAMEL
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup cream
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • FILLING
  • 3-4 small baking apples, peeled, cored and diced
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp brandy
  • 1 tbsp and 1 tsp cornstarch
11 servings

Directions

CRUST
Put flour in a large bowl. Half half the butter and all the cream cheese. Squash in your hands til most of the cream cheese is gone. Add the rest of the butter and continue squashing.

Put dough in a zip lock bag and roll to flatten the bigger butter pieces. Put bag in freezer for 10 minutes.

Remove from freezer and put back into bowl. Add the cider vinegar and lightly toss. Add the water and toss. Press into 4-5" discs and refrigerate for 1 day.

CARAMEL
Over medium heat melt sugar, stirring constantly. As it gets darker turn down heat. Once sugar is melted (it will be a dark caramel color) add the butter at once. (Don't fret about the little bits of sugar, it will continue to melt.) It will splatter so stir constantly. Once it is melted drizzle in cream while stirring. Let it boil for about a minute or two. When the caramel looks like it's starting to boil over turn off heat and stir in salt.

FILLING
Add apples, cinnamon, juice and sugars in a bowl. Allow it to macerate for 2 hours. Drain from colander for a half hour. Put the juices in a pot and boil down. When it's reduced by 1/3 add butter and brandy. Let cook down for another 5 minutes til thick and caramel-ly.

Toss apples in cornstarch. Pour ingredients in pot over apples and stir.

ASSEMBLE
Roll out each disc and use your biggest ring to cut out each pie crust. (I used an english muffin mold) You should come out with about 22 crusts. Put in the refrigerator on a tray and pull out 6 crusts at a time.

On each top crust, stamp out a little design. (I used a star food cutter.) Place about a tablespoon of apples in the center of the bottom crust. Put about 1 tsp of caramel on top of the apples. Wet both edges of the crust with water. Put the top crust over the bottom, push out the air and crimp edges to seal. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Then put in freezer for 1 day. Sprinkle with sugar before baking, egg wash optional.

Bake at 400 for 5 minutes on parchment. Lower heat to 375 for 25 minutes or til crust is a dark brown. (Cream cheese makes for a darker crust) When placing the hot pies on a cooling rack, spoon about a tablespoon more caramel into the pie windows.

3 days

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