Apple Caramel Personal Pies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

For the Filling:

Peel, core and slice apples into thin wedges. In a bowl, gently mix together the apples, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla extract, caramel and salt, set aside until ready to use.

For the Pie Crust:

NOTE: You will only need one pie crust for this recipe. I made “Sylvia’s Perfect Pie Crust” which you can find here at TastyKitchen. This is a 2 crust recipe so I froze the remaining half of the dough for later use.

Grease a 12-count muffin/cupcake pan with shortening or butter sprinkled with flour to prevent sticking.

Working on the bottom pie crust layer, roll out the crust. Taking two pieces of parchment paper or wax paper, place one sheet on your working surface, flour the surface of the parchment paper, place dough in the center, cover with the other piece of parchment paper.

Beginning at the center start rolling from the center to the outer edges, rotating the dough as you go around, and continue rolling until the pie crust is about 10 inches in circumference. Using a 4 inch round cookie cutter, cut out 5 to 6 molds, as many as you can get. Remove pie crust rounds and gently place in muffin/cupcake pan. Press the dough against the corners of pan. Repeat until all the muffins/cupcakes are lined with pie crust dough.

For the designer crust on top, roll out the remaining dough, using a tiny heart or star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out pie crust tops.

If you want to add a message on the top crust, take your stamp and press thoroughly onto the cookie cutout creating your designer pie crust. I used a heart cookie cutter for the crust with an “oven fresh” and a spatula stamp. Complete all designer top crust layers.

Spoon apple pie filling into muffin/cupcake pies, filling to the top, place the top layer of your designer crusts atop.

Bake at 375F for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden in color. If your pies are browning, snugly cover with aluminum foil so the top and edges don’t burn. Remove from oven, let cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, using a knife gently loosen each pie from the pan and place on a serving dish.

Eat immediately – these little sweets are bite sized so they disappear fast!