Apple Pastries and Crisps

We went apple picking, and I made apple treats!


Backstory: My oven is a casualty of mice (I do *not* want to smell what it would smell like if I turned the oven on), so I had to come up with apple pie alternatives. Luckily, I have a few small ceramic dishes that I could make crisps in, and I decided to make pastries using a pie dough recipe I like (mostly because it involves vodka; who doesn't want to bake with vodka?).

How I did it: I have a pie filling recipe that I followed. We found an awesome apple peeler/corer that cuts the apples into spirals. Then I sliced them into quarters and tossed them in a bowl with some lemon juice. I combined the flour, sugar, and spices according to the recipe, and then shook them with the apples in the bowl (with a lid).

I filled the two ceramic dishes with apples, then made an oatmeal topping with butter and sugar to top it with. I baked them in the toaster oven until the tops browned.

The rest of the apples I cooked on the stove top until they were warm and gooey like pie filling should be. Then I made my pie dough, let it chill in the fridge for a while, and then rolled it out.

My first pastries were an experiment. I have a sandwich maker, and I figured I could use that to make little pie pockets. It worked okay, but ended up being really messy.

For the next pastries I just rolled out the dough and made triangles. I put a little bit of apple filling in them and cut some steam holes in the top. (The steam I think may have been the issue with the sandwich maker.)

All of the pastries ended up kinda different sizes and shapes, but still delicious. The steam holes on some of them ended up looking like hearts! <3

What I learned: I need to do a better job of sealing the edges.

What I might try next time: I may try the sandwich maker again if I can figure out a way to avoid the apple filling trying to escape everywhere. Otherwise, I think different shapes of pastries could be fun.

Final Thoughts: Apple pie is delicious, but so are toaster over pastries!