Twenty-one Dreams: Apple Pie Cookies

A lot of people look forward to the holidays because of all the yummy baking. Personally, I look forward to family time, presents, and sleepovers more because baking for me is an every-other-week-all-year-long sorta thing. I saw this recipe a while ago and have been dying to try it out because the cookies are so damn cute! And the concept of a bite-size, no-mess, apple pie is pretty cool too. All the ingredients are things you would generally have around the kitchen and so really...I had no excuse (well, except exams but...)
Anyways, what I forgot was that I'm an expert procrastinator and so I kept putting it off. However, when I woke up today and finally (finally!) saw sunshine and blue skies through my windows, I couldn't delay it any longer. This recipe is super easy to follow and I tried to do so to the exact measurements, but some things needed tweaking. Nevertheless, these mini apple pies were a HUGE hit with my family! My brothers and dad will probably finish them off by tomorrow morning (I just saw my little brother walk past my room with one in his hand). All signs of a good recipe :)
Ingredients

For the dough:

2½ cups (313 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 tsp. (4 grams) salt
2 sticks (8 oz. or 1 cup) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
½ cup very cold water

For the filling:

2-3 medium apples, whatever variety you prefer for baking
Squeeze of lemon juice
1/3 cup (67 grams) granulated sugar
1 tsp. (2 grams) ground cinnamon
Dash of grated nutmeg

For assembly:

Water
1 large egg lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
Sugar, for sprinkling

To start off, you need to combine the flour, sugar, and salt together in a medium sized bowl with a fork.

Mixture of flour, sugar, and salt

Butter cut into smaller pieces

Add the butter

Then, use a pastry-cutter to cut in the butter into the mixture until the largest pieces of butter are no bigger than peas and the mixture is coarse. If you don't have a pastry-cutter, you can use one (or two) forks to cut in the butter. (If you're unsure about this technique, watch this video to learn)

I used a fork to cut in the butter

Next, stir in the water a little at a time until all of the dry mixture has been moistened and the dough can be shaped into a cohesive ball. I used my hands to knead everything together.

Flatten the ball of dough into a disc shape (with your fist) and seal the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

When you're ready to make the cookies, line a baking sheet with parchment paper (wax paper). Peel the apples and cut off the sides. Throw away the core. For each piece of apple, slice it further into thin slices. (I didn't want to waste any, so I chopped some into smaller pieces too). Put all the apple slices in a bowl and toss it with the lemon juice. In another small bowl, whisk together sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg with a fork.

Now, take out half of the dough you put in the fridge earlier and use a rolling pin to flatten it out on top of a lightly floured surface. It should be rolled out pretty thin (about 1/8 -1/4 of an inch). Use a round cookie cutter or the mouth of a glass to cut of the rounds from the dough. Place these rounds on the baking sheet and very lightly brush them with water to help the pies seal.

**I didn't brush the rounds "lightly" and because of it, my filling became more liquidy than necessary. So make sure you don't use too much water.**

Take a few apple slices and coat them in the sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg mixture. Place them on each round.

**Don't overpile the apple slices or your pie won't stick and the filling with leak out**

After you finish, take the remaining half of the dough out and use the rolling pin to flatten it out like before. Cut out rounds using the cookie cutter or glass like earlier and place them on top of each pie. Crimp the edges of the pies with the tines of a fork to help seal it. You can dip the fork in flour if you want, to prevent sticking. Lightly brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash. Use a knife to cut slits onto the tops of each mini-pie and sprinkle a little sugar on top of each.