Pi(e) Day

Today is Pi day.  Not pie as in the food, but pi as in the mathematical symbol for 3.14 followed by an infinite amount of numbers.  It's pi day because its march 14th (3/14).  Well, since it's pi day, I saw no better thing to do than to make pie.  Duh.  Ok, so maybe I was just looking for an excuse.  Not that I need an excuse to make pie, but it was fun anyhow.

These mini apple pies are encased in an apple shell.  Not only is there the delicious taste of warm apple pie with a flaky buttery crust, but also the bite of a crisp, cold, fresh apple.  It's awesome!

Start with some good ole' granny smiths.

And gut the thing.  This takes some work.  Cutting out the insides of an apple as crisp as granny smiths are, is hard to do.  I used a knife and a melon baller.  Then I used the insides to make a smoothie.

Next I made some pie dough, enough for a single crust pie.  I used my traditional flakey no fail pie crust.  Cut out some circles.  Don't make them pretty.  And be sure to make a huge mess.  It won't be good if you don't make a mess.

Take those pie dough circles and put them in a muffin pan.  fold them in and squash them down a bit to make them fit.  Fill them with apple pie filling.  Keep it simple.

This is how they turn out!  Perfect for a picnic, and much less messy than pie.

I wish I could take complete credit for these...but I saw a picture of something similar from I don't remember where and decided to recreate it with my own recipes.  

Inside Out Apple Pies

for the pie filling:
3 Granny Smith Apples
1/8 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice


for the pie dough:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, cut into little pieces
1/4-1/2 cup ice water


To make the dough:
Mix together the flour, salt and sugar (this can all be done in a food processor, but I only have tiny one so I used a pastry blender.  Hands also work : )).   Add in the butter and pulse (if in FP) or mix in with hands/pastry blender until the butter becomes course crumbles, like peas.  Gradually sprinkle in ice water, and mix dough until it just comes together, but not too sticky.  Wrap in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for an hour or so.

While dough is chilling, hollow out the apples.  There may be plenty of easier ways to do this, but I just did the best I could.  I cut off about the top quarter of the apple.  I then used a knife to loosen the edges of the remaining apple (on the inside of the peel) and finally a melon baller to scoop out all the apple filling, being careful to not break through the side of the apple.  squirt some lemon juice inside of the hollowed out apples and swirl around to keep the apple from browning.

After pie dough is chilled, roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Make circles using a very large jar/glass or just freehand it with a butter knife (that's what I did).  Place the dough circle in a muffin pan.

For pie filling, slice up one of the apple insides into 1 inch pieces.  Toss apples with sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.

Put pie filling inside of the dough, and bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25 mins until crust is just golden brown.

Put the little pies inside of the apple shells and enjoy!!!