Christmas Eve Chaos, continued...

As I was saying, I was having a rough day in the kitchen.  Again, in the spirit of not letting my apples go to waste, I wanted to make apple pie.  But apple pie is a pain to cut and serve so I searched the internet for another idea.  I happened across a recipe at Pillsbury for mini blackberry pies.  Why not make them mini apple pies?  They would be easy finger food for adults and all those little monsters running around opening presents.  Not that any of the kids I know ever eat anything on Christmas anyway.  So, I embarked on altering the recipe.  I would post the link, but the Pillsbury website appears to be down at this moment.

1.  Roll out a pie crust (again, I used a premade, I've referenced my pie crust anxiety before) and use a 2 3/4" round cookie cutter and cut as many 'mini crusts' out as possible.  I was able to roll it back out and get 13 out of one crust.  Also, I used a cutter with zig-zag edges for appearance sake.
2.  Spray a mini muffin tin with wd-40 (aka Pam) and put the 'mini crusts' inside.  Press down gently.  Don't do as I did, and form them on the underside of the muffin tins because you thought you read the instructions correctly.  This adds an extra step.
3.  Now the apple filling:
     a.  Dice up 3 cups of apples
     b.  Add apples and other ingredients to a sauce pan except flour (recipe below)
     c.  When the mixture comes to a simmer, sprinkle flour in and stir in.  Allow to simmer, stirring frequently for 15-20 min until soft
     d.  Mash gently (I literally did this only twice just to make sure the chunks of apples were small enough to fit in the cups, don't over mash, we aren't making applesauce)
     e.  Place 1 heaping tablespoon in each
4.  With the remaining pie dough, I cut out little stars and put them on top of the little pies.  I only had enough dough to make a few, but I wasn't going to use a whole crust just for a few stars
5.  Brush stars with egg wash for a nice shine and sprinkle with sugar
6.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (until crust is golden, the filling is already cooked)

Apple Filling:
3 cups diced apples
1 tbl lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 tbl flour

Make sure, when you are transferring your mini pies to the serving device, your fiance doesn't yell a question at you from the laundry room, causing you to drop any of your pies.  Believe me, it can happen, and before you know it, there is an unsalvageable pie, upside down, on the cat hair covered floor.  No 5 second rule here.

Drowning in Apples, continued...

My dear, sweet Red had a rough day at work yesterday and I thought that I would treat him with an apple pie (in addition to a good hearty dinner).  Also, I’m trying to use up the abundance of apples in the house.  I won’t lie, I purchased Pillsbury pie dough.  First of all, I had a coupon and there was a rock bottom sale on them.  Second of all, as I bow my head in shame, pie crust is a source of anxiety for me.  My grandmother creates a pie crust that is beyond description.  Its flaky goodness envelops whichever harvest season filling happens to be coming out of the oven.  It dances on your tongue, begging you to have just one more slice.  She passed this talent on to my mom, and I, at 28 years old, have been avoiding this lesson like the chicken pox.  Why?  Who knows.  Probably because I hate being told what to do.  What does one of my friends call it?  A strong case of defiance disorder.  So in an effort to make my honey a treat, I cheated.  I promised my mom that while she was laid up with surgery this winter, that I would go down and take care of her, if, in return, she would show me how to make pie crust.  Cringe.  So, nothing too exciting to write about here, but I wanted to post my picture.  For the filling, I use the recipe right out of my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. 

On another note, in an effort to get the most out of my food purchasing and preparing efforts, I was wondering what I could do with all of my apple peels and cores left over from baking these delicious fruity confections.  I spent some time searching the internet and it seems that some people save up cores and peels in the freezer until they have about 10 lbs, then use it to make apple jelly.  While I have never made any jellies, jams, preserves, etc - I think it may be a future Insomniac Mom adventure!