Muffin Sized Caramel Apple Pies With a Cinnamon Bun Style Crust

Caramel Apple pie. Super tasty but not exactly easily portable by the slice, and rarely vegan. As a result I've never been a huge pie eater most of my life. Until through trial and error I solved those problems. Now I eat a lot of pie.

This recipe is pretty flexible. It can be made non-vegan if preferred by using real butter and milk. Also the sugar you use could make it non-vegan depending on how it's made. Here in Canada our major sugar producers stopped using bone char years ago so I just use normal brown sugar for just about everything.

As for the apples, you don't have to use Granny Smith. You can use any type you like but you may want to consider cutting down on the amount of caramel sauce you use if you a sweeter variety of apple. I personally like the Granny Smith tartness because I find it balances out the sweet nicely.

One of my favourite things about these pies is the size. By making them as muffins I can easily pack them in lunches etc due to the fact that the filling is completely contained within crust. No super messy containers and forks.

Ingredients

• vegan butter or margarine
• flour
• brown or golden sugar
• white sugar (optional)
• water
• cashew milk (or other nut of choice)
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• Granny Smith apples (or other apple of choice)

Tools

• Mixing bowl
• Small pot
• Measuring spoons & cups (both liquid & dry)
• whisk
• muffin tins
• pastry cutter or knife
• rolling pin

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp butter or margarine
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 cup sugar (1/2 white & 1/2 brown; or all brown)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup cashew milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla
  

Instructions

1. Measure butter into small pot and heat on stove over medium heat until melted.
2. Add flour and whisk till thoroughly mixed and bubbling.
3. Add milk, sugar and vanilla to the pot. Cook until thick enough that it just starts to stick to thew bottom. Or longer if you like your caramel sauce a bit thicker. Just make sure to keep whisking or it will totally stick to the bottom.
4. Pour sauce into a jar or container, cover with a cloth and set aside till cooled down.

*WARNING* Do NOT lick the spoon, stick your fingers in the pot to taste, or just all around get the sauce on your skin before it cools down. When it's hot the caramel sauce is like molten lava and can cause some nasty burns.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup chilled butter or margarine
• 1tsp sugar (white or brown)
• 6 tbsp ice water
• 1 tbsp butter/margarine, melted
• 4 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl add flour, sugar, and butter.
2. With a pastry cutter or knife, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it is combined and a sort of mealy texture. (see 3rd photo)
3. Sprinkle the water over the contents of the bowl and then mix with fork until combined.
4. Turn dough out onto lightly floured counter.
5. With a rolling pin, roll out dough into a large rectangle between 1/8-1/4" thick.
6. Spread melted butter over the rectangle and then sprinkle with cinnamon.
7. Roll up jelly roll style on the long edge.

Ingredients

• 2 medium Granny Smith apples (or apple of choice)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instructions

1. Lightly spray your muffin tins (or however you stop stuff from sticking)
2. Cut a piece of dough off the roll roughly 1/2 - 1". The size will be up to you due to factors such as the size of the pans and how thick the roll is.
3. Roll the piece into a circle and line the muffin tin completely up the sides to the top with it.
4. Cut another piece of dough about half the size and set aside.
5. Repeat 3 & 4 until your dough is used up. It'll make approximately 12 -14 pies.
6. Peel apples and cut up into small pieces.Combine in mixing bowl with flour,cinnamon, and nutmeg. *Please note: You want the apple cut small. You may be tempted to save time by cutting them bigger but by doing that you end up with way less filling after the apple bakes down.*

Now it's time to collect all your separate pieces and stuff set aside.

1. Spoon apple mixture into muffin pans until full to the top.
2. Add roughly 1 tbsp of the caramel sauce to each pie. Possibly less if using a sweeter variety apple.
3. Take each of the dough balls you set aside and roll them out into flat circles.
4. Place each on top of a pie and pinch the edges closed.
5. Cut two small slits into the top of each pie.

1. Bake in oven at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until browned and flaky looking.
2. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans for a few moments before moving pies to cooling rack.
3. Wait as long as you can and then enjoy. As you can see from the pictures I can never wait until it's cool enough to eat without a fork. ;)