Clean Eating Mini Pies

My daughter Sara asked me to make apple pie for her classmates, so I decided to make a cleaner version that I could feel good about serving the 1st graders. Store-bought pie crusts were out of the question due to the food dyes and other junk they put in there. I found a recipe for the crust, tweaked it, and found a recipe for the filling and cleaned that up too. For the pie crust, I kept the all purpose flour because whole wheat might be too course, but I subbed stevia for sugar. For the filling recipe, I subbed maple syrup for sugar and reduced the amount. I also did not add a top crust or more butter on top like the original. They turned out so good!!

Clean Eating Mini Apple Pies

Makes 24 pies

Crust Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

4 tsp stevia

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, cut into chunks, chilled

8 tbsp ice water

1. This recipe makes 2 crusts and I would recommend halving the ingredients and making one crust at a time.

2. In a food processor with a dough blade (or stand mixer), combine dry ingredients.

3. Add in half the butter, pulse to combine, then add the other half. Pulse until butter is mixed in but do not over-mix.

4, Add in water and pulse only a few times, until the dough starts to come together.

5. Pour dough out onto plastic wrap, form into a ball and refrigerate until apples are prepped.

Apple filling ingredients:

8 cups of peeled and chopped granny smith apples, about 7 large apples

1 cup pure maple syrup

4 heaping tsps cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine apples with remaining ingredients.

3. Take crusts out of the fridge, roll out, and cut circles. The lid of a large mason jar was the perfect size. Each crust will yield 12 crusts.

4. Fill the crusts with the apple filling.

5. Bake 15-20 minutes, until crusts start to turn brown and are cooked through.