Adorable Apple Caramel CupPIEcakes.

Friday was a very happy day.
I finished my last final, got into spring break mode, annnnnnnddd...
got tons and tons of veggies for free from our campus food coop!!
They aren't open during spring break, and instead of throwing out, or letting the veggies meet their impending rancid doom,
they gave them to me!!

So fast forward to this afternoon.

I'm looking at about two pounds of organic apples that are going mushy and I realize there is no way I am going to eat these all before they get all brown and spotty.

Solution?

PIE!!!!


I was so excited. It was pie time! But...
oops.
I guess I DON'T have a pie pan?
Hmm.

Never fear! A little thing like not having an actual pie pan wasn't going to stop me from achieving pie-y greatness.

So I scraped together the two things I DID have, a bread pan and a cupcake pan.

After Frankensteining together a few different pie recipes, the result was these:




ZOMG SOOO CUUTE!!!! !(>.<)!

Here are the cuppiecakes with their mama:



The crust is super flakey and delicious and the caramel is the perfect touch.

Make them! I dare you. Every day is special enough for a Apple CupPieCake.

Note: Once again, this recipe is super Frankensteined and I've never posted a recipe before so, I apologize for it being long and not easy to read. I'll work on that.
Also, I'm not exactly sure how many apples to use because I had a billion of the small organic kind, and because my goal was to use them all, I ended up with CupPieCakes, the Pie-in-a-Breadpan, and almost two cups of apple left over for applesauce. I suggest maybe 3-4 large ones. I suggest if your goal is just to make delicious pie and not to use up a plethora of apples before they go rancid, then get more than you think you'll need. You can always make more!


Adorable Caramel Apple CupPieCakes:


(Use vegan versions of ingredients of course.)

Pie Crust

-(from http://www.almostvegan.com/archives/2004/06/pie.html)

2 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Vegetable Shortening (like Crisco)
4-5 Tablespoons ice water

1.) In large bowl mix flour and salt. With pastry blender or 2 knives used scissor-fashioned, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2.) Sprinkle in ice water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with fork after each addition, until dough is just moist enough to hold together. (the less water you use, the flakier the crust)
3.) Shape dough into 2 disks with your hands, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Filling

Thinly Sliced Baking Apples. (I used the yellowy-greeny-tinge of red kind)
Cinnamon
Caramel topping: (based on http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=22283.0)

    1/2 cup vegan margarine (the stick kind)
    3 tablespoons flour
    1/2 cup sugar
    1/2 cup brown sugar
    1/3 cup water

In a saucepan, bring "Caramel" topping ingredients to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

Assembling

1. Take out your refrigerated pastry dough. On a floured surface, roll it out as thin as you can. Don't worry too much if it tears.
2. Tear off square pieces of dough approximately 2 inches bigger on each side then the diameter of your cupcake pan holes.
3. Lay the pieces each over the hole and then push gently down so it lines the pan. Cut off any overlap.
4. Take your apple slices and break them into pieces to fit your cupcake pan, fill each hole with apples to the top. Shake some cinnamon on top.
5. Take the caramel sauce, and fill each mini piecake with sauce until it reaches the top.
6. Top the piecakes with pieces of whatever dough you have left over.
7. In an oven preheated to 425 degrees, place your piecakes on the middle shelf and bake for 15 minutes.
And here's where it gets iffy again because I can't remember if I baked them longer then that.
I know it was at least 15 minutes, but it could have been as much as 25.
So check them out at 15 minutes, if the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly and looking like if you leave it in any longer it's going to Pompeii all over the place, it's time to take them out.
8. Let them cool!!
9. To get them out, run a knife in between the pan and the edges of the piecake. If it starts spinning, then it's loose enough. Using two knifes on either side, kind of shimmy the piecake out carefully.
10. Dig in!! No fork required.


I suppose you could make an ACTUAL pie out of this if you have a pan, but that is just not as fun.
:)