New kitchen toys!!

Oh how I love the holidays!! My hubbie and I, full of love that we are, can never wait until the big day when there are lots of presents under the tree. So we shower each other with gifts slowly throughout the month. So, today, on Present Day 3, look what magical wonderousness I received!!!!



Oh I can't wait to make about a million things with this baby!

Mini Apple Pies

So, I mentioned that every major holiday I make an apple pie, because I love it. A boutique cupcake kiosk opened in my mall right outside the store I work in. They sell tiny pies too and so I got it in my head that I could make tiny pies instead of one large one this Thanksgiving.

So, I used this recipe:
http://mamasgottabake.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/mini-apple-pies/#comments

And I started with these quality ingredients:



For the first time ever I bought two different brands of apples - more on how it turned out later. :-)
I started by peeling and cutting the apples into edible slices:



I appear not to have taken any photos of beating the dough in the mixer, but here's the ball after it cooled in the fridge slightly:




I cut the ball in half and rolled it out on a well floured board, flipping it several times:



I then made circles on the dough approximately the size of my muffin tins and cut about a half inch wider than that with a pizza cutter:


I fit the circles into well-greased muffin tins:



Then I filled them with the the apple mixture which had been marinating during this crust process. I filled the cups very full, basically overflowing.



Then I rolled out the other half of the dough and cut it into 1/2" strips to make lattice-tops.



After lacing the tops, I brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top:



Coming out of the oven, the tops were perfectly golden brown:



The mini-pies popped right out of the tin onto the plate:



I heated them slightly and served them with ice cream. They were perfect and amazing! I want some right now....yummie time!