Over the weekend I discovered Sally’s Baking Addiction. If you haven’t spent hours drooling over and making her recipes GO. (after you read this post of course!) She has a little something for everyone from vegan, no bake to gluten free. And yes, you can even search for recipes by ingredient. Love that!
The recipe I tried first was for my dear husband who has a bigger sweet tooth than I do. Though I liked her original pop tart recipe, it was way too sweet for both of us. I guess after recently reading about what sugar does to your brain and body, I was determined to try the recipe again and come up with a variation of it so that we could have a sweet treat that we both would enjoy.
I used Sally’s recipe for the pastry and I recommend that you make this first so that it can be cooling while the oven heats up to 350 degrees and you peel your apples/mix your filling. I also recommend returning it to the freezer/refrigerator when it gets too warm to work with and grabbing the other divided dough to roll out.
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- in large bowl mix pastry dough together thoroughly
- divide dough and wrap in plastic, place dough in refridgerator to cool or in the freezer to cool quickly (set timer for 15 min)
- wash, peel and core apples. I recommend dicing them into smaller chunks
- Add apples to filling and setting aside while you work with the dough (add 1 additional tbsp of flour if it gets to watery)
- on floured, flat surface roll out dough until you have the thickness you desire. (I went a little thinner than pie crust)
- using your Pampered Chef Cut-n-Seal, cut out two circles for every pocket pie you want to make
- arrange circles on your cookie sheet and cover with an egg wash
- spoon out apple filling into the center of the circle
- before placing second circle on top of the first and filling, gently cut four slits (you may need to gently tug a bit to make sure edges are aligned)
- center your cut and seal over the two layers and seal
- cover top with egg wash
- bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown
TOOLS
- two mixing bowls (one for dough, one for apples/filling
- sharp knife
- Pampered Chef Cut-n-Seal
- rolling pin
- cookie sheet
- peeler
- plastic wrap
PASTRY*
- 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/4 TSP salt
- 6 TBSP unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 3/4 cup vegetable shortening, chilled*
- 1/2 cup ice water
FILLING
- 1/2 cup dark or light brown sugar
- 2 TSP ground cinnamon
- 1 TBSP all-purpose flour
- 8 apples cored, peeled and diced (I used gala but you could also use cameo or cortland apples)
EGG WASH
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 TSP milk or water
If you want to have some fun and explore making this recipe with a variety of apples, Epicurious has a great visual guide.