Listen, I know I’m in the minority when I say…
I do not like caramel apples…
I’m sure everyone’s like, “but you just haven’t had a good one!” You’re right. I haven’t.
I know. I’m sorry for ruining your day, your week, your Autumn season. But the caramel sticks to your teeth, biting through the crunchy apple while the semi-hard caramel first gets lodged into every single nook and cranny in my molars isn’t my idea of a good time.
Enter, the Ultimate Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pie.
Now, tell me you don’t like pie and I will challenge it with every fiber of my being. There’s nothing to not like about pie.
Is the pastry too delicate and flaky?
Filling too perfectly spiced and sweet, while still holding the structure of the apples?
Caramel glaze too silky?
These babies will rival your PSL, Hocus Pocus binges, and pumpkin picking in your matching flannels, for the crown of Autumn glory.
This recipe is in a few parts.
- First we make the pastry so that the butter can firm before we roll it out. Cold butter and pastry = tons of steam for extra flaky layers
- Next we will mix the apple filling
- Finally we will make the quick salted caramel sauce to turn into our glazes
Let’s get to it!
You will need for 13 small hand pies:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 sticks salted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup ice water, mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 medium granny smith apples, peeled and cut into small cubes
3/4 cup light brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoons molasses
1 lemon juiced and zest of 1/2 the lemon
1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons salted butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup powdered sugar
In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients for the pastry. Using your fingers, mix the butter into the dry ingredients until you have pieces of cold butter about the size of peas.
Add in the ice water/vanilla mixture and mix until the dough just comes together leaving very few dry pieces in the bowl.
Wrap the dough disk in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or until you’re ready to use it. Can be made a full day ahead.
Next, combine all of the apple filling ingredients and mix thoroughly.
When you are ready to assemble the pies, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the pie dough in half and working with one half at a time, roll into thin sheets. I used a 4 inch round cookie cutter to cut tops and bottoms for these pies, but you could cut a larger circle and fold over if that’s more your style!
Beat together an egg with 1 teaspoon of water to form your egg wash.
On the bottom of your pies, brush a little egg wash around the outside of your crust.
Place 2 to 3 teaspoons of apple filling in the middle, any more and your pies won’t close, and seal with the top crust.
Crimp the pies closed with a fork, and brush the tops with egg wash.
Bake these for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
For the salted caramel, while the pies are in the oven place 1 cup of sugar in a nonstick saucepan. Melt the sugar over medium high heat until no clumps remain and the sugar is a nice medium/deep amber color.
As soon as the sugar is melted and the color is right, pull off the heat and stir in the 6 tablespoons of butter. Be careful as it will bubble in this stage.
Once the butter is melted, whisk in the heavy cream and salt.
Take 1/2 cup of the salted caramel sauce, and mix into the 1 cup powdered sugar.
Add in a teaspoon of water if it’s still too thick for a glaze. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold it’s shape for a few seconds.
Once the apple pies come out of the oven, let cool on a wire rack.
Dip the tops of the pies into the glaze, and drizzle with a little of the salted caramel.
The issue is that if you don’t make these salted caramel apple hand pies for a gathering, a picnic, or to bring to the office, you will eat all of them 10/10 times.
Speaking from experience…