(cliccate qui per la versione italiana)
Happy Monday and Happy New Year to everyone!
I’ve never made “themed” recipes or posts for any festivity (not even Xmas! Even though actually I DID make green cookies after all…) and so today, like any other day, I would like to share with you these hand pies that I randomly created a while ago. I had way too many apples (and I only ended up using one here!) and a small jar of salted caramel that I’d made a few weeks earlier (for this tart), so I thought of combining the two ingredients and I discovered that…salted caramel goes well ANYWHERE!!! I warned you.
APPLE HAND PIES W/ SALTED CARAMEL {vegan}
by Marta Giaccone
Recipe
5 hand pies
prep time: 15 mins, cooking time: 15 mins, total time: 30 mins
Crust
1 cup / 120 gr di whole wheat flour
1 tbsp / 4gr baking powder
1/3 cup / 60 gr sugar (I used coconut sugar)
pinch salt
pinch vanilla (seeds from ½ a bean, extract or paste)
4 tbsp light oil
4 tbsp plant-based milk or water
Filling
1 crunchy apple
lemon juice
1 tbsp starch
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp salted caramel (find recipe here) or 1 more tsp starch
Method
- In a large mixing bowl sift and mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and vanilla (if using vanilla extract or paste, add together with wet ingredients). Add oil and milk (and vanilla), mix well with a spatula first, then with your hands. It will probably be quite crumbly, that’s normal. Wrap it in plastic, slightly flatten it and let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
- Prepare the filling: wash, peel (or not) and dice the apple. Transfer to a bowl, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the starch. Mix, then add sugar and caramel. Stir until everything is nicely incorporated.
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
- When 30 or more minutes have passed, transfer the dough to a floured work surface and roll it out to about 3mm thick. Using a 8cm cookie cutter or a glass, you should yield 10 discs (use up all of the dough!). Take 5 of them and gently roll them out again to make them a tiny bit larger (to be used on the top). On these, make a cross with a knife or prick with a fork.
- Spoon about 1 tbsp of the apple mixture in the center of the smaller discs, then place a “large” disc on top and very carefully press down the sides with our fingers or with a fork.
- Bake for 15 minutes (my oven is old, powerful and static so I always put them on the top rack or else they’ll burn quickly). The cookies are ready when the bottom starts browning (lift one and check after about 13 minutes!). The top will still be quite soft and that’s ok, it will firm up after cooling. Let cool completely and enjoy! Store at room temperature covered with a clean cloth or in the fridge in an airtight container for a couple of days.
