Seriously.  What is not to love here?  I had some leftover pie crust from my {Spinach & Gruyere Quiche} and lots of apples in my fruit bowl, so these happened.  I am so, so glad that these happened.  They happened at the end of a yucky, stressful day and made the world all sunshine-y and apple pie-y again.  Perfect.

 

These are everything that I love about apple pie in a cute little package.  Since I already had a pie crust prepped and ready to go, it was just a matter of cutting up some apples and assembling them – and then it was a matter of dipping the hot cookies into a tub of vanilla ice cream, but we won’t talk about that.

Apple pie and ice cream?  Yes.  Apple pie cookies and ice cream?  Yes times three.

Do you know what’s even more perfect about these?  They’re the perfect holiday cookie.  They’re sturdy and travel well which makes them great for holiday pot-lucks, and they would even be ADORBS wrapped in little parchment envelopes with a bit of twine and a cute note – a quick, easy and seriously yummy gift.

As I was making them, I was already dreaming up all kinds of different fillings for next time – (because YES, there will be a next time) a baklava-type filling would be fantastic, or a modified pecan-pie filling, or a pumpkin-cream cheese filling…but because the hubs loves cherry pie, I’m sure that will be my next attempt.

A couple of tips will make this super-easy recipe even easier for you – first, make sure your dough is cool but not too cold when you roll it out and assemble the cookies – if it’s too cold, the dough will tear and frustrate you and you’ll end up dipping apple slices in cinnamon sugar and then you’ll have to peel more apples.

Not that I know.

Also, you can crimp the edges with a fork if you like, but I didn’t want my crust to get too crispy around the edges so I just pinched them together with my fingers – probably not as cute but it worked just fine.

Finally, if you have trouble cutting the apple discs, just chop up some apples into little pieces and spoon a heaping teaspoon of apples into the middle of each cookie, no one will know the difference – just make sure the pieces aren’t more than 1/4 inch thick so they have time to cook through.

I hope you love these.  Enjoy!

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Apple Pie Cookies
Yield:  24-ish cookies
Prep Time:  30 minutes (excluding dough chill) ♦ Bake Time:  25 minutes per batch

Dough Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1/2 cup ice water

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt, and whisk together to combine.  Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly and a pea-sized consistency.  Add the ice water and combine with a fork until the dough comes together in a ball.  Form the dough into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Filling ingredients:
2-3 medium granny smith (or other baking variety) apples
juice of 1 lemon (optional)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh is best)
small bowl of water
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl

To assemble and bake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).  Line two baking sheets with silpat mats or parchment paper and set aside.  Peel apples.  Using a paring knife, cut thin, disc-like slices off the sides of each apple.  Mine were about 1/8 inch thick.  If the apples begin to brown, you can squeeze some fresh lemon juice over them to slow the process.

In a small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Toss the apple slices in the sugar mixture to fully coat each apple.

Roll your pie crust into a large rectangle sheet, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.  Using a biscuit cutter (or any round cutter, even the top of a jar or cup), cut discs of pie dough about 2 and 1/2 inches in diameter.  Move half of the rounds to the prepared cookie sheet, and brush those rounds lightly with water to help them seal.  Top the dough-disc with an apple disc (some may be too big and will have to be cut) and then top with another slice of dough.  Press the edges of the dough together to seal, using a fork if necessary.  Repeat with remaining apples until all discs are filled.  Re-roll and re-cut dough if necessary.

Lightly brush the top of each cookie with the egg wash mixture, and sprinkle with sugar (I used the leftover cinnamon-sugar mixture).  Bake for 25-28 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen