apple tarts

<p><em data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">A sweet and comforting recipe for homemade apple hand pies, with a buttery crust and spiced brown sugar apple filling, these handheld treats are a favorite way to bake up freshly-picked Fall apples.</em></p>

Homemade Apple Hand Pies

all-purpose flour

sugar

1-1/2 tsp fine sea salt

all-vegetable shortening, very cold or frozen, cut into small pieces

6-7 tbsp ice water

apples, peeled,

unsalted butter

(packed) brown sugar

cinnamon

nutmeg

cloves

heavy whipping cream

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse together the flour, sugar and salt until well-combined. Add the butter and shortening to the flour mixture and pulse a few times until the butter and shortening pieces are evenly dispersed, with the largest pieces about the size of peas. Be careful not to over-mix. Add the ice water, a tablespoon or two at a time, and pulse to combine, until the dough is evenly moistened. Pinch a bit of dough together between two fingers to test &#8211; the dough should stick together. If the dough seems dry, add a few more teaspoons of water and pulse again.

Transfer the pastry to a clean, well-floured work surface, and divide the dough in half. Gather each half of dough into a ball, then flatten into a round, disk, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour before you begin to roll out the dough.

Make the pie pastry

Heat a skillet over medium-heat. Add the diced apples, butter, brown sugar and spices to the pan and stir to combine. Cook until the butter is melted and the apples are just soft, but not mushy, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and transfer the apple filling to a mixing bowl to cool. Set aside and let come to room temperature.

Make the filling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.

Remove one of the dough disks from the refrigerator. Roll the dough out on to a generously-floured piece of parchment paper, until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Using a 5-inch-diameter cookie cutter or saucer (my preferred method), cut out six circles. Re-roll the dough as necessary to achieve all six.

Lay the pastry circles on one of the sheet pans and top with half of the apple mixture, being sure to reserve as much of the apple liquid as possible. Adding too much liquid to the pies will get messy, quickly. Fold the dough in half, and use your fingers to gently press the edges together. Using the back of a fork, gently press down to create a fluted seal along the edge.

Lightly brush the top of each pastry with the cream, and sprinkle generously with the demerara sugar. Cut a small x-shaped slit in the top of each pie, and repeat these steps with the second dough disk, if using.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the pies are golden brown and cooked through. Let cool for 10 minutes on a baking rack. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

To bake the pies

These were amazing! I used all organic ingredients and honeycrisp apples... I had no nutmeg so I did cinnamon and vanilla extract with a pinch of clove and it still came out delish! Thanks for sharing :) I will forever use your crust recipe!

Hello! I just wanted to say, that this recipe turned out great! The dough is awesomely delicious - after trying and buying a dozen different tasteless doughy crusts, this one finally is a winner! It's super tasty, enough so that my husband was actually eating some of it raw! :)

I threw in some cinnamon, clove and allspice into the dough to spice it up a little and mixed it by hand with a pastry cutter since I don't have a large enough food processor. In addition to the apple filling, I also used some blueberry and cherry pie filling I canned last year. I noticed the dough was a tad crumbly, next time I'll add a bit more water as mentioned in the recipe, and perhaps even chill the dough overnight like I do for my sugar cookie recipe.

At any rate, these were awesome and it's definitely a recipe I'll be making again. Thank you so much for sharing!!

Thank you for saving my thanksgiving. I made this pie with apples we dried at the end of summer. I couldnt believe I made this from scratch. My mother in law can't wait to test these pies. The crust was soon good. Thanks again for sharing

I always put some scoops of ice cream on the top!

Made these today.  Excellent. Will definitely make these again!

Made this for a group of friends and they all loved it!  Some ate it with ice cream, and others just used their hands.  The crust was a huge hit, so this is very much a keeper! Thanks also for the quick answer on whether to defrost before baking.

Love this! I used all butter since I didn't have shortening, and the crust turned out great. They are delicious and fall-like!

The pie dough was really great to work with, and goes in my book.  Much more pliable than my usual recipe, but also more fiddly. The filling was good too, a very "American" taste due to the cinnamon and brown sugar. It brought me back to  my exchange year, 28 years ago.  I made tiny little pies that looked like English mince pies. I added a teaspoon of corn starch to the juice, and put it right back in with the apple pieces. This solved the mess problem. Next time I will try to make it more Scandinavian style, with less (white) sugar, no spices, maybe a little lemon juice if the apples are very sweet. Oh! And come spring, these would be great with rhubarb!

Love these. A pinch of cardamom adds a nice note if you're looking to add a bit of mystery.

This is my second time making this recipe and it is just delicious. Passed on the recipe both times.  Did make rhubarb pies also and they were a hit! I made a rhubarb sauce and used that so they wouldn't be too juicy. Thank you!!

This. Is. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!
Thank you for sharing.
The crust is delicious and texture was the right crisp for a pie shell and the filling had the perfect texture, not too soft or too hard.
We froze it and baked it half of them the next day. It was so good! 
We used yellow eggs yolks as the wash as family tradition and came out shiny golden.
Do you have other filling recipes, i.e. blueberry, cherry or other fruit filling? Thanks, again.

These looked so good, and had such great reviews, I decided to make them - A Lot of them for a Brunswick Stew event. I ended up making about 100 - the recipe completely threw me off with the butter - so it took me way longer, as I had to go back and fix the butter issue. They were really good - and have received many good comments from customers. The apples and crust are not sweet - exactly what I was looking for!!! I ended up with many extra apples - so I'm making a pie to freeze. Next time I'm using a tortilla press  instead of rolling individually. Wish me luck!! :)

Winter desserts don't get any better than baked apple tarts. Try this version with rich cream cheese.

Apple and mascarpone tarts

butter,

maple syrup

butter

mascarpone

milliliters double cream

nutmeg,

(1 cup) plain flour

chilled butter, chopped

tsp icing sugar

water

These delicious maple-glazed puff pastry apple roses are sweet and crisp. They're also easy to put together, can be made ahead and look like they came from a fine bakeshop!

Glazed Puff Pastry Roses

red/pink apples (I like Honeycrisp and Pink Lady but any red baking apple will work.)

sugar ((divided))

For the pastry:

all-purpose flour (for the counter)

Thaw the puff pastry at room temperature for 30 minutes. When thawed, refrigerate until ready to use. Spray a 6-cup muffin tin with non-stick spray. Set aside.

Cut the apples in half, remove the core and slices into very thin slices. Leave the peel on - t will give the roses a beautiful red color. Place the sliced apples in a microwave-safe, medium-size bowl and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Gently shake the bowl to distribute the sugar.

Microwave the apples on high power for 90 seconds then remove from microwave and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Transfer the apples to a strainer that’s been set over a bowl. Gently shake the strainer, then allow apples to drain for 10 minutes while preparing the puff pastry. Reserve the juice in the bowl.

Remove the puff pastry from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangular shape, about 12 x 9-inch (30 x 22 cm). Cut the dough in 6 strips, each about 2 x 9-inch (5 x 22 cm).

Combine 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle each strip of dough with a generous teaspoon of the sugar mixture.

Arrange the apple slices on the top edge of one of the strips of dough, overlapping one another. Make sure the top (skin side) of the apple slices sticks over the top edge of the strip. (See picture in post above.)

Fold up the bottom part of the dough so the edges meet (see picture in the post.). Starting at one end, roll up the pastry like a snail then seal the edge at the end by pressing the dough together with your fingers. Place the “rose” into one of the cups of the prepared muffin tin. Repeat with the other 5 strips.

Place the muffin tin in the refrigerator (see tips above in post about working with puff pastry) while you preheat the oven to 375˚F.

Bake the apple roses for 40 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush the tops with the syrup mixture (see directions below). Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until golden. (Cover the top lightly with foil after 25-30 minutes of baking if the apples are getting too brown.)

10. While the apples are baking prepare the syrup by adding the maple syrup to the reserved apple juice in the bowl. Place the bowl in the microwave for 90 seconds then remove and set aside.

I am contemplating making these...however, I am confused...so I am going to try to reiterate the folding apple into pastry instructions as I understand them
1.  cut puff pastry into six 2x9 strips...sprinkle with sugar etc.
2.  place cut up apples on the strip and then fold the strip over the apples with just the edge of apple showing?
3.  then roll the strip and place in muffin tin

Thank you for this fabulous recipe!  I made them for my Life Group ~ all gone!! 
I didn't realize that I needed small apples, so mine were too big.  I needed to cut each slice in half.
I also rolled the puff pastry out to 15" and cut the strips 2 1/2 ' each to accommodate.  They were so cute.  I made your homemade caramel sauce to top them:  heavenly.
PS......because I cut the apple slices in half I had extra apples left over.  I had some phyllo dough left over from another project, so I used that....ok, but not as good!!

Thank you so much for your step by step instructions and beautiful photos.  These lovely tarts were so easy to put together and so delicious.  And they were so pretty , and I heard a lot of "ummm so good". Definitely will make these again.

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Top Tags

Homemade Apple Hand Pies

Apple and mascarpone tarts

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Top 3 apple tarts recipes from across the web

The most viewed apple tarts recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Homemade Apple Hand Pies

Apple and mascarpone tarts

Glazed Puff Pastry Roses

The most viewed apple tarts recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine