Apple Hand Pies

Alright! I have an AMAZING recipe!

I've made apple hand pies many times now, and each one was a learning experiance. I've never been able to pin down the recipe, but today I'm finally making myself write down what I do to make these fabulous pies.

apple hand pies are basically little personal apple pies with finely chopped apples and sweet pie dough. I love them even more than regular apple pie.

INGREDIENTS

Pie dough:
      1 1/4 cups flour
      1/4 cup ice cold water
      1/2 cup butter
      1 Tbsp sugar
      1 egg, 1 tsp water, and sugar for the coating
Filling:
      2 cups finely chopped apples. mine turn into little mini apple matchsticks from the way I cut them, and then I chop those in half. this process takes a long long time.
      1 Tbsp vegan butter or margarine
      1/4 cup -ish brown sugar
      1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
      1/8 tsp nutmeg
      1/8 tsp ground cloves

TO COOK:
      Dough: cut the butter as fine as you can and place in the freezer for a while. Combine flour and sugar with butter and cut until the mixture has small pebbles of butter and is relatively unified. add ice cold water until the mixture sticks into a ball without crumbling. wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour before rolling.

     Filling: chop apples. put on some Brian Reagan or something to keep you entertained. In a pot, or pan, or whatever's available that'll hold apples, melt the butter and dump in the apples. Stir until coated, and add in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. cook until your roommates start drooling and get fussy, or until the apples reach the crispness or mushiness you desire. They will get more mushy later. remove from heat and cool.

                                                       Preheat the oven to 375
      Roll out dough between two pieces or more of plastic wrap until fairly thin. It's okay to go a little bit thicker than regular pie dough. cut out circles of dough and set aside. I use a fairly large cup as a cutter.
      Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lay out half the circles. using the apple juice, make a damp ring of juice along the edge of the dough circle so the top will stick to the bottom. Heap on the apples, leaving a space around the edge. with the remaining half of the dough circles, cut notches in the top so the pies don't explode and carefully place over the prepared bottoms. crimp the edges with a fork to seal the deal.

     beat the egg with a little water, then brush over the tops of the pies. sprinkle sugar generously over the top.

pop the puppies in the oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on size, or until the tops and sides are golden brown and you can't stand waiting any longer. let them cool a little, and then devour warm.

Enjoy!!!