The other day I found this post on Luxirare about pie pops. They're mini pies on the ends of lollipop sticks -- cuteness! The post is very picture oriented and doesn't really give much information about how to make the pops, so I just had to wing it. (Although, the pictures would definitely come in handy if you have trouble deciphering my verbal instructions below!)
I used my mom's recipe for apple pie filling (just apples, a drop of lemon juice, white sugar and cinnamon) instead of the suggested one that includes corn starch. I really don't like thick goopy pie filling, and my mom's is perfect! I cut the apples really tiny so they'd fit in my little pies.
I used:
1 apple - cored, peeled and minced
approx. 1 tbsp sugar
approx. 1 tsp cinnamon
approx. 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
2 ready made pie crusts
Thaw out the pie crust for about 20 minutes or so until it's pliable and you can roll it out. I used the lid from a spice container to cut out 2" circles from the dough (of course, if you have a real circular cookie cutter that would be stellar!) I placed the lollipop stick in the middle of the dough circle, about 1/4" from the top. I realized after my first two pops that the stick needs to be near the top in order for the lollipop to be sturdy enough to pick up.
Put a little tiny bit of apple mixture on the dough (about half a teaspoonful), layer with another cut-out circle, and then seal the edges using another lollipop stick. Keep doing this until you run out of dough. (I managed to get about 26 pops out of this. The trick is to keep re-rolling the leftover bits of dough.)
Brush each mini pie with some egg white, prick with a fork to release steam and then sprinkle with sugar. I baked mine for 12 minutes at 375' and they came out perfect, although my batch on the lower oven rack burnt a little, so next time I'd probably keep it down to 10 minutes, and then let them sit on the tray for a minute or so out of the oven.
These are by far one of the cutest recipes I've ever tried. And in the end, I'm actually glad that the original post didn't have instructions, because it makes these feel more like my own. And since I used my mom's apple pie filling recipe, they tasted like mini versions of the pie I've loved since I was a kid.
