“I’m going to make minis” I say. “I won’t eat an entire apple pie anyhow. Ok… I SHOULDN’T eat an entire pie” I say. “Pie crust hates me anyhow” I say. “My pie crusts always come out slightly crappy. I’ll half the pie dough and make minis” I say.
Sometimes I wish I would just learn to keep my big trap shut. I decided to make minis mainly because my pie crusts have always been nothing short of disappointing. Always. Not one instance where my pie crust has turned out flaky and delicious. Well, until now. OF COURSE!! I swear the baking gods hate me sometimes.
I can chalk my pie dough up to actually taking care to follow the steps and to put everything in the freezer before it was to be used. Cold butter, cold shortening, cold flour even. I used the maximum amount of water that was listed and although I though I needed more, I stopped. Rolling it was a bit of a pain because it wanted to crack on me BUT I didn’t really care because I thought it would suck anyhow. Psh.
On to the caramel. HA!! The god bless me once and damn me in the same pie. I tried THREEEEE TIIIIIMES (persistent little thing, aren’t I?) to caramelize my sugar and water. And THREE TIMES it seized. It just wouldn’t stay liquidy. I have NO IDEA what I did wrong but I threw the pot in the sink, added cinnamon (1TBSP), nutmeg (1/4 tsp), and allspice (1/4 tsp) to my apples (left out the zest and upped the sugar 2TBSP extra) and went about my pie making.
Halving the recipe left me with 4 ramekins full-o-pie. These are goooood! Eat it waaaaarm and delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and be quickly transported into apple pie heaven. There is simply no other way 🙂
Thank you to Susan of Baking with Susan for Choosing this recipe, how’d you know that I have a weakness for baked apples? But honestly, why didn’t you warn me that I should have made an entire pie? 😉 Head on over to her blog for the recipe and be sure to head on over to the other bakers’ blogs to see their (complete) pies.
The Whimsical Cupcake 
Seriously, these are so cute!
Perhaps now you should just TELL yourself the pie crust will be horrible and it’ll turn out great!
Yipeee for nice pie crust! Your minis look great. Im glad you enjoyed this recipe. I had a hard time with the caramel too. Next time Im going to buy a jar of it and dump it in!
Love your mini pies and the pie crust looks amazing. I had a hard time with the caramel, I added more water and was able to save it.
Haha you’re too funny 🙂 This was a super flaky pie crust and definitely gave me the least trouble of the many, many, many pie crusts I’ve tried. I’m with you on the caramel though – it just wasn’t happening here – lots of crystallization. Your minis look gorgeous!
I may have to give this pie crust a whirl. I’ve never been brave enough to tackle a pie crust, and I was away this week and didn’t get to play along 😦 It has seemed to get relatively good results though!
You have me laughing out loud! Your ramekin pies look delicious. I had lousy luck with the caramel too. First time it seized and the second time it never really became caramel. Thanks so much for baking along with me this week. 🙂
I’m so glad the pie crust turned out for you on this one but sorry you had trouble with the caramel 😦 Your mini pies look amazing, I especialy love the little ramekins which look like little apples, how perfect!
I’m glad this was such a big hit for you. The crust looks very flaky so good job on not-handling it!! It was a big hit with us, although I ended up making a tart, not a pie.
Oh, btw, next time you make caramel, try these 2 tricks:
-spray the inside of the pan with non-stick spray, then add your sugar and water
-while the sugar and water are coming up to a boil, cover the pan (remove the lid once it’s boiling)
Let me know if that works for you!
It’s nice to finally tackle a culinary goal; the pies look great. I actually had success with the caramel, but I’m not sure what I did right. I think I had some caramel karma for all the times I’ve had to make it three times. A full recipe was no problem with this recipe.
Unbelievably cute! Your crust looks fantastic, too
such cute little pies!!! I tried the caramel twice and it seized on my twice. So, I left it out too!! Next time i’ll buy some caramel at the store and drizzle it on top. I love your little ramekin dishes!
How incredible do those look!!! That last pic with that flaky crust is awesome. So glad your crust DIDN”T work for you. LOL