mini apple + pear pies

Last night there was a ladies dessert night at the home of a woman from our church. I knew I wanted to make something fall-ish and I had tons of apples and pear from our CSA delivery box. 

Pie. Sounds good. But kinda messy...hmm how about mini pies! 

Yes. 

Pre heat oven to 350. Makes 12 mini pies. 

Ingredients

• Enough pie crust to make 12 muffin tin sized rounds (i used a large biscuit cutter) and enough extra to make designs on top. 
• 3 ripe apples
• 3 ripe pears
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp milk + 1 egg (not pictured) beaten with a fork.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

Wash apples and pear and peel. Slice thin and pat dry with paper towel.

Add apples and pears to large bowl 

Juice the lemon and add to the bowl of apples/pear along with the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

I do all of these spices by sight, but I think I added about 2 tsp of each - maybe more cinnamon. 

The fruit tends to get very wet/soupy so when adding the filling to the pie shells, used a fork or slotted spoon so your pies don't get soggy!

Ok for the pie crust I used store bought, but obviously homemade would be better!

Cut the pie crust into 12 equal rounds that fit inside muffin tins - I used my doughnut/biscuit cutter and it was the perfect size!

I decided to make my own parchment liners for the pies so that they wouldn't stick to the muffin tins and they would look cute to take to the party - let's be honest! I just cut large squares out of parchment paper and pushed them down inside the muffin tins, creasing the sides as I went.

Here you can see what I mean with the parchment paper. 

Anyway...back to the recipe. 

Once the dough is cut out and the parchment paper is in place then put the dough round into the muffin tins and just kind of...make them fit. Its ok to mold them into the tins, since they won't be perfect when you push them down. Just make sure the dough is solid and there are no gaps or cracks - fill these in with extra dough. 

Ok fill the little pies and add extra dough to the tops in literally any shape or pattern you want. I like that they are a little janky and misshapen and "rustic" looking! Just make sure they all have some sort of vent hole. Brush top dough with the milk/egg mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

They were so yummy and extremely easy to eat, perfect for a party setting. The perfect little serving of pie! 

p.s. I tried to make cinnamon & nutmeg whipped cream to go on top but it was a disaster!! The whipping cream never whipped and It was just a mess!!

But...homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream WOULD be the perfect addition to this sweet treat!