I spy with my little....... Pie (Now with pictures!)

Hey, who doesn't love pie?? And even better, who doesn't love hand held food? Well, here is the best of both worlds! Hand held PIE! I made these as a little something different for dessert the other night. I made apple filling to go in them, but you can put any pie filling in you like, or even jams! You can also flip it and make savory pies instead of sweet (pizza, ham & cheese etc). I got some apples on sale so this was a very cheap recipe for me, a dozen pies cost a total of about $1.75.

Apple Pie Filling (makes about 2 x 9" pies)

6           Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and thin sliced

2tsp       Fresh Lemon Juice

1c         White Sugar

3tbl       Corn Starch

1tsp      Cinnamon

1/2tsp   Nutmeg

1/8tsp   Allspice

2c         Water

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Pie Dough


2c         All Purpose Flour
1tsp      Salt
2/3c      Shortening, chilled (lard, vegetable shortening, butter or a combo of any of these)
4-7tbl   Very Cold Water

Peel, core and thin slice your apples. Toss them in a pot with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and lemon juice. Sprinkle in the corn starch, add your water and stir a bit. 

Cook apple mixture on med heat until you get a nice boil, then reduce to med/low and simmer until apples are tender but not mushy. The sauce will thicken nicely. Put mixture in a bowl to cool.

Cut your fat of choice into small cubes and place in the freezer while you assemble the rest of the dough ingredients. I use a food processor to make my pie dough now, if you do as well, place the blade in the freezer too. Sift together the flour and salt. Place your chilled blade in the food processor, add the flour and then the chilled fat. Pulse until the fat is incorporated into the fat and you get a texture like crumbs. If your cutting the fat in by hand the texture still applies. At this point I quickly turn the processor on and drizzle the water in until it reached a nice dough ball, being careful to add only enough to form the dough. If doing this by hand I add the water 1tbl at a time and mix in by hand until the dough forms up. For making the small pies like this I cut the dough into 4 even pieces, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate. Dough MUST chill for a minimum of 30 minutes. An hour is better. After dough has chilled unwrap, piece at a time, and place on a floured surface. Flour your rolling pin and roll dough thinly. I try to roll into a roughly square shape as the template I use to cut the dough is square (although you can cut into most any shape you like).

At this point I also put some of the pie filling in a work bowl and smash it a bit with a fork. smaller bits for smaller pies you see. Now place a spoonful in the middle of each pie square. wet the edges of the dough with water and fold over, being careful to get all the air out without squishing the filling out. Use a fork to press the edges together. After all the pies are pressed and ready, brush with an egg wash (1 egg 1tbl water and whisk) or milk and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake @ 400° for 18-25 minutes. Time will vary with ovens and pie sizes. Pie is done when they are golden brown and delicious! If your pies are overfilled and you fear they might explode, you can lightly dock them once or twice with a sharp knife.

As I said above, you can use any filling you use in a baked pie. I haven't tried pudding yet, but I will! Apple, cherry, all the perry variations, as well as most any jams. I hope you enjoy these. I appologize for there being no finished product pictures.........but they just didn't last long enough!!