Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies

This recipe tastes as good as the name sounds. You’ll love the salty caramel apple flavor mixed with the buttery flaky crust. 

I love desserts that can be served individually. I am the world’s worst pie and cake cutter. Seriously, it looks like I cut them with a baseball bat by the time the slice actually gets to your plate. With that being said, I usually try to steer clear of serving those kinds of desserts for company. These hand pies come out uniform and look so neat with their clean lines - definitely pleasing to the eye! If you are like me, someone with no hand-eye coordination, you may want to give these a try. 

I collect salt and pepper shakers just like my sister and mother-in-love.

The ingredients are simple and you just can’t go wrong with homemade dough. I know what you’re thinking – homemade dough sounds intimidating, right? Wrong! Well, some homemade dough recipes scare me a little but this one is great for beginners like me. If you still feel a little intimidated, you could always buy the refrigerated pie crusts at the store and use those!

​I hope you enjoy these!

Ingredients:
For the dough:

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 C (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• ½ C cold sour cream

For the filling:

• 2 C small diced (peeled) Granny Smith apples
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ C sugar
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 8 store-bought soft caramels, roughly chopped
• large flake sea salt
• Egg wash (1 egg lightly whisked with 1 tablespoon water)

Directions:
For the dough:

1. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.
2. Add the cubed butter to the bowl and use your fingers to work the butter into the flour until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand. Stir in the sour cream (the dough will be very wet), and then turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface.
3. Knead the dough a few times until it comes together, adding more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, if the dough is too sticky to handle. Roll the dough into an 8x10 inch rectangle and dust both sides with flour before folding into thirds as if you were folding a letter.
4. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it out again into an 8x10 inch rectangle. Fold the dough again into thirds then wrap it securely in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes while you make the filling.

For the filling:

1. In a small bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar and flour, stirring until thoroughly mixed, set aside.

Assembling the pies:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Remove the dough from the fridge and unfold it onto a floured surface, rolling it out to a 12x12 inch surface.
3. Using a 3-inch circular cookie cutter, or cup, cut out as many circles as possible. Re-roll the scraps and continue cutting out circles until you have run out of dough.
4. Place six circles on a Silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet. Spoon a small portion of the filling into the center of each circle, leaving enough of a border around the edges to seal later.
5. Top the filling with a few of the chopped caramels and a pinch of sea salt. Place another dough circle on top and use a fork to crimp the edges together, sealing each pie.
6. Brush each pie with the egg wash and cut a few small slits on the tops of each pie to give them a little ventilation. Sprinkle a little sugar on top. (Optional)
7. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

​In Him,
Sarah Kathryn Marlowe

​Adapted from Just a Taste