Mini Apple Sour Cream Pies

One of my favourite aspects of moving from an island on the wet coast has been moving closer to dirt. There is so much land here and it often just goes unnoticed. At least I feel like I’m the only one in awe of all the land around here after coming from a place of rock and muskeg. I had to truck my garden soil in from a hour and half inland when I lived in Prince Rupert, after all.

All this dirt means there are farms here and farmer’s markets! The Smithers farmers market is incredible. It’s grown into something so beautiful since I first visited it when Lily was just an infant. Our local farmer’s market is smaller but still fantastic with the local produce, preserves, plants, baking, sweets and even locally grown and milled flour. It’s also in walking distance from my house.

It was the locally grown and milled flour that inspired me to make these mini apple pies. I’ve made them from time to time but they were especially delicious with this fresh flour added to them. I’m not sure I can go back to the regular grocery store flour!

They aren’t super hard to make, although one might think they are with the lengthy recipe below. Here’s what I did:

Mini Apple Sour Cream Pies

Crust

• 1/2 cup cold Unsalted Butter, cubed into 1 inch pieces
• 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour (or a combination of whole wheat and all purpose)
• 1/2 tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/4 cup Almond Milk (or another kind of milk)

1. Put the cubed butter in the freezer to chill for about 15 minutes. Measure out the almond milk and pop it in the freezer for a few minutes too.
2. Mix together the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor with the dough blade in place. Take the cold butter from the freezer and process it with the flour mixture until lumpy.
3. While the machine is processing, add the cold almond milk. Once the dough has come together, wrap the dough well in wax paper in disc shape and put in the fridge for an hour (or while you are making the pie filling). (It can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.)

Filling

• 3 cups Granny Smith Apples, chopped (I used the red apples I had on hand)
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 2 tbsp Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup Demerara Sugar
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground Ginger
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• dash of Salt
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Topping

• 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Demerara Sugar
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 4 tbsp cold Butter
• 3 tbsp Walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375 ‘F and liberally grease a muffin tin.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the apples, sour cream, flour, sugars, spices, egg and vanilla. Mix until combined. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, make the topping by mixing the flour, sugar and cinnamon. Using a your fingers or a pastry knife cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse sand. Add in the walnuts. Set aside.
4. Take the dough from the fridge and roll it out. Using a wide mouth mason jar or other, cut out circles in the pie crust. Press the circles into the prepared muffin tins and carefully press down on the bottom and sides. You want the crust to cover all the sides of the muffin tin and the bottom. Set aside.
5. Carefully scoop the filling into the prepared crusts in the muffin cavities.  Scoop about one tbsp or so of topping over the apple mixture.
6. Bake pies for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until crust is golden and topping is golden brown.
7. Serve with whipped cream.