Recipe: Mini Apple and Blueberry Pies

I don’t know about you, but I am one hundred percent ready for spring to arrive. Over the past week or so, we had wonderfully spring-like weather in the Netherlands and I even sat outside on my balcony reading in the sunshine last weekend! It was absolute bliss and it makes me long for more of those days because I am done with winter. Give me all the sunshine!

Because I’ve been in such a spring-y mood, I also felt like baking something fresh and fruity. In the end, I decided to go for these mini apple and blueberry pies. I even went light on the cinnamon, to not give it too much of an autumnal feel (and I love my cinnamon!). Instead, I added a bit of ginger, but if you’re not a fan of ginger, you can definitely leave it out, or use a bit more cinnamon instead. Also, if you’d rather make one big pie instead of twelve small ones, you can easily use this dough for that as well. Just use a 22 or 24 centimeter springform tin instead of a muffin tin.

You’ll need… (for 12 mini pies)

For the crust

• 300 g plain flour
• 100 g granulated sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 200 g cold butter, in cubes
• 1 egg
• zest of 1 lemon

For the filling

• 3 small apples
• 100 g fresh blueberries
• 70 g granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

The rest

• 1 egg (to brush the tops of the dough with)
• cling film
• muffin tin
• grater
• rolling pin (or an empty wine bottle – works fine too!)
• 10 cm cookie cutter (or a glass/mug with this diameter)
• and an oven, of course! These mini pies need to be baked at 180 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1 Mix flour, sugar and salt Take a large bowl and mix together the flour, the 100 grams of sugar and the pinch of salt using a whisk.

2. Add butter, egg and lemon zest Next up, add the butter, which should be cold and in cubes, as well as the zest of half a lemon and one egg. Now it’s time to knead it together. You can do this using a stand mixer or you can use your hands. I did the latter. Knead until all of the ingredients are mixed together and a ball starts to form.

3. Let pastry rest Knead the pastry into one big ball of dough and wrap it in a piece of cling film. Put this ball into the refrigerator and let it rest and cool there for at least 30 minutes.

4. Prepare filling While the pastry is resting, you can prepare the filling. Peel and core the apples and cut them into small pieces. Put all the pieces in a bowl and add the blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and ginger and mix it all together.

5. Roll out and cut pastry Once the 30 minutes of cooling are up, take the pastry back out of the fridge. Generously dust your rolling surface with flour and do the same for your rolling pin. Then, roll out the dough until it’s about half a centimeter thick. Use your cookie cutter or glass/mug (I used a big tea mug) to cut out 12 pieces of dough. You might have to ball up the dough and reroll it a few times. Make sure you have enough dough left over for the tops of the pies.

6. Divide dough over muffin tin Grease and flour your muffin tin and then place a round piece of dough you just cut out in the tin, making sure it forms a nice cup. Use your fingers to press them into the sides. Fill the entirety of the tin like this.

7. Add filling Now, it’s time to add the filling to the pastry. Using a spoon, scoop the apple and blueberry filling into the cups of pastry. Make sure you don’t add any excess moisture (you could sieve out the moisture beforehand to make that easier). Fill up the pastry cups and press the fruit down, because it will shrink considerably while baking.

8. Add tops and brush with egg You can go multiple ways for the tops of the pies, but I decided to create a tiny lattice for some, and cover the pies with an entire top (with a few slits to let out steam) for the others. Add the tops to the pies and firmly press them down into the edges of the pastry cups. Then, brush the tops of the pies with some beaten egg.

9. Bake! And then it’s time to bake these little pies! Place the muffin tin into your preheated oven and bake the pies for 30 to 35 minutes. Check the progress once in a while to make sure the pastry doesn’t end up being too brown. Then, when the pies are done, take the muffin tin out of the oven and let the pies cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes before taking them out. You’ll probably need to use a (sharp) knife to cut them away from the edges of the tin a little bit.

And that’s it! You’ve got your own delicious mini apple and blueberry pies! Enjoy!