Monday, April 18, 2011

Everything's better when it's mini

Last week was a potluck with my small group from church.  Thanks to Andy and Alex, our theme for the night was everything had to start with the letter "A"  Of course, I was in charge of the dessert, so Ala Mode Mini Apple Lattice Pies it was!  Such a tedious dessert to make, but the finished product was well worth it!  I started to make the pies the night before and realized that we were almost out of flour.  Thankfully I had some Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, so made a combo of: 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour, 2 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup cold butter sliced, 4-5 tbsp cold milk.  Mix the flours, sugar and salt together.  Cut in the butter with the flour, but make sure to not use your hands with this because you want to keep the butter really cold.  Once the butter is about pea sized, add in the milk about 1 tbsp at a time.  Gently form the dough into a ball first with a fork and then you can use your hands if needed.  Chill in the fridge until ready to use.

Ala Mode Mini Apple Lattice Pies

Crust listed above

For the apple filling:
5 large apples, diced very finely  (I do a mixture of McIntosh, Braeburns...etc)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/3 cup toffee bits
juice of half a lemon

Make the dough and chill in fridge until ready to go.  Filling should be made when you are almost ready to use your dough.

Peel, core, and finely dice your apples to very small pieces, otherwise known as a brunoise
Toss them with the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, allspice, ginger, toffee bits, lemon juice, and lemon extract, if you’re using it. Store in the fridge until ready to use.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. 

When you are ready to roll out your dough, bring one ball out of the fridge and flour your work surface, your hands, and your rolling pin (if you don’t have a rolling pin, use a cold wine bottle – it’ll help your dough stay cold, anyway). 

Divide one of your balls in half and foll out gently, going in one direction, until the dough is about one or two centimeters thick. Using a glass or a cookie cutter, cut the dough out into appropriate sized circle for your muffin pan (I used the top of a water glass for this), and use your finger to stretch the dough out a bit as needed.

Press into a lightly greased muffin pan and work until half of your total dough is gone (you will need the other half for the lattice tops). 

Fill your pies with the apple filling. 

Make the lattice tops by cutting out the same sized circles as you did for the crust, then slice the circles thinly, and layer them in alternating layers for the lattice tops. Pinch the corners together so that the lattice top sticks to the crust, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. 



Brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg and sprinkle with a little raw sugar, if you like. 

Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for another 10-12 minutes, until the crusts are golden and the filling is bubbling.

Allow to cool completely before removing from the pans. 

To make them ala mode, I topped each pie with a generous scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (this part I bought from the store ha ha)

Makes 18 Mini Pies

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