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Friday, April 20, 2012

Dutch Apple Pie Cookies (Three-Bite Dutch Apple Pies)

Dutch Apple Pie Cookies



I think I've discovered my favorite way to enjoy these cookies:
atop a bowl of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream.

I first made these little things about two years ago.  I'm not quite sure why or how I thought this up.  Maybe I saw somebody else do it and I stole their idea.  I don't think I did that, but if you recognize your work here, let me know.  I want to give you credit.
These cookies really are just a couple of bites of Dutch apple pie, complete with real pie crust on the bottom.  So cute too.  Imagine eating a piece of Dutch apple pie.  If you think about the last inch or so of pie, where the ratio of filling to crust shifts so that you're eating slightly more crust than filling, that's what these cookies taste like.  To me, that's the sweet spot of the pie, and that must be why I like these.
I entered these "cookies" into a Tone's Spices competition at the Iowa State Fair.  They made it behind the secret curtain, but they didn't win anything.  I think they're awesome, though. My friends and coworkers loved them. I thought so much of these that I even entered them in the Pillsbury Bake Off.  Well, Pillsbury wasn't very impressed either, apparently.  If you think they look good, give them a try and let me know what you think.  I know I've made them sound like losers, but they're really just under appreciated.
The cookies taste best when they're fresh, when the topping and crust are crisp, but just like an apple pie, they still taste great later too.


Dutch Apple Pie Cookies (Three-Bite Dutch Apple Pies)

Ingredients

Crust (You can also use store-bought refrigerated pie crust):
Topping:
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • ¾ cup oatmeal (quick or old-fashioned)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ cup butter, cut into chunks
  • 1 1/2 cups canned apple pie filling* roughly chopped (I took a knife and cut the apples while still in the can.)
  • powdered sugar for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Prepare pie crust: In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut 4 T butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal, and then cut in Crisco until well blended. Add ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball.
3. Flour a square sheet of wax paper, place dough ball in the middle, flour the ball, and cover with another square sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out to a thickness of about 1/8”. Using a 2” round circle cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. Carefully place circles on a wax-paper-lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer until needed. Collect dough scraps and roll and cut more circles that you will add to the pan in the freezer.
4. Prepare topping: In a large bowl, mix all of the dry topping ingredients with a fork. Add butter chunks and mix with your fingers until all the butter is incorporated and it begins to form crumbles. Set aside ½ cup of this crumb mixture.
5. Stir chopped apple pie filling into remaining crumble mixture, just until mixed.
6. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, evenly place 12 of the frozen dough circles. Place a scant tablespoon of apple mixture onto the middle of each circle. With your finger, flatten the top of the apple mixture a little bit. Using a fork, place about ½ teaspoon of the reserved crumble mixture on top of each cookie. 
7. Bake at 375°F for 14-15 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from oven and then transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Shake a little powdered sugar over cookies to make them look pretty.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies. Recipe is easily doubled. 
I might have put too much filling on these.



*If you want to go completely homemade, here's the recipe for apple pie filling, which I think tastes the best, and most like the dutch apple pie taste I was trying to replicate in a cookie. This makes twice what you need for the cookie recipe, so you can either halve this, or you can freeze half of it for another time. Or you can try making some Apple Turnovers.

 Apple Pie "Filling" 

Ingredients:
  • 4 medium granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced into 1/4 inch cubes
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup white sugar 
  • 3 T cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 cup apple juice (fresh apple cider is better)
  • 1 cup water (you can use just 2 cups water, but the apple juice/cider is better)
Directions:
-In a large bowl, toss diced apple with lemon juice and set aside.  Pour apple juice and water into a high-rimmed saute pan over medium heat.  Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, & nutmeg.  Add to liquid in pan, stir well, and bring to a boil.  Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
-Add apples and return to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until apples are tender, about 5-6 minutes.  Cool for 30 minutes.
-Ladle into plastic containers to refrigerate or freeze.  Cool at room temperature no longer than 1 1/2 hours.
Makes about 3 1/4 cups apple pie filling.


Canned apple pie filling
makes it easier. Remove some of 
the goo if there's a ton.

65 comments:

  1. Hi,
    Just found your site thanks to Pinterest. This recipe sounds great. Love your humor - "I know I've made them sound like losers, but they're really just under appreciated." - really did make me laugh out loud. :)

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    1. Thanks for letting me know that my writing actually made you chuckle. I really want to be a funnier person, but I only luck out once in a while in the humor department. I'm glad you caught that one. :)

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    2. Hi I just made this for my moms senior club. Excellent!!! Delicious !! Going to make this for the holidays. Thanks for sharing

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    3. I'm glad you liked them! Thanks for letting me know! :)

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  2. This recipe has 3 components I love: dutch apple, pie crust AND they are cookies. I can't see where they will go wrong. I also found your site via Pinterest and it has been my best find yet on there! Last weekend I made your Colorado Burritos and Mexican Rice and my family LOVED it. My son had a busy week and wasn't home much but kept saying "I want to have those leftovers!" I'm going to make these cookies today for my new co-workers.

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    1. Hi, CatieW! Thanks for letting me know how much you and your family are enjoying the recipes on my blog! It's funny that you say you're making the cookies for new co-workers because when my husband started a new job last fall, I made all sorts of goodies for his new co-workers just to make sure they liked him. So far it's worked. :) (I guess his intelligence and winning personality might have something to do with it, though.)
      I hope the cookies go over well for you! Thanks again for the kind words!

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  3. Ummm ... Yummm!!! I just made these for my kid's teachers tomorrow and I had to try one and oh my goodness!! They are amazing ... can't wait to try out more of your recipes. Thanks for this one!

    Tanya

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    1. Excellent! I'm so glad they worked out for you! Hope the teachers are happy with them too! :)

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  4. Oh my gosh! These look absolutely heavenly!!! I are pinning this for sure so we can make them. Thanks so much!

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    1. Thanks, Erin! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! :)

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  5. Omg just made these. Little apple pie cookies. My family couldn't get enough. Very simple. I made them with store bought pie crust. Delicious

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    1. Awesome! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed them. :)

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  6. Can you tell me what the T stands for when you reference the ingredients?

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    1. Sorry about that. An upper case "T" in a recipe stands for "tablespoon." I'm going to go ahead and type the word out in the recipe, though, to make it clear. Thanks for asking so I can make that revision. :)

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  7. Can you use regular all purpose flour or does it have to be the brand you said ?

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    1. Oh, it can be regular all purpose flour. I just love King Arthur Flour because it makes things turn out so much better for me, that I like to name it. I usually turn it into a link in the recipe so you can click to see my rationale for listing it in particular. I might secretly hope that they send me free flour for promoting them. :) Just use whatever all purpose you have.

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    2. I love King Arthur baking products as well. Their rye flour and Vietnamese cinnamon are my personal favs from their catalog. : )

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  8. Oh my, you have such an awesome site!
    And this recipe has me drooling... :)
    Thanks so much for sharing, I will be trying it out soon.

    Take care
    Farhana

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    1. Well, thank you, Farhana. I hope you like them when you try them! Let me know how it goes. :)

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  9. Heidi-Ho
    I'm loving your fabulous blog that I found through pinterest! You've got creative tasty recipes that, when copied and made for my friends, will make ME look creative and tasty. Let's just keep your great ideas "our" little secret- alrighty?
    Best wishes and Thank You

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    1. Jillette,
      You are so sweet, and you made my day! I WILL keep the secret. You can count on me. :)

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  10. What a fabulous idea! Can't wait to make some! :0)

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  11. It looks so good and it tastes so much better!
    Thanks for sharing!!

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  12. what's crazy is that I made berry cobbler cookies a few weeks ago. I saw this recipe on pinterest and thought to myself "hey! they took my idea and made it apple cobbler cookies, cool!"

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    1. Do you have the recipe posted somewhere? I'm curious about what they're like. ;)

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  13. Why is there baking powder in the topping mixture? I bake a TON, and cannot understand the concept. Generally, baking powder is in a dough base. Thanks in advance

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    1. I don't even have a good answer for you. I was in this "cookie" mindset, and I wanted some leavening in the cookie, so I threw in the baking powder. Perhaps I'll try to omit it sometime. I'm a big baker too, but I'm also not a professional, so I really just made this up. Let me know if you happen to try making these without the baking powder.

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  14. This recipe is SO DELICIOUS! I just came across your recipe/blog through pinterest and I made a batch today and they are yummy! I used store bought crust to save a little time, and they turned out great. Thanks for an awesome recipe!!

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    1. Well, you're welcome, Stephanie! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed them as much as I do. :)

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  15. I made these for my co-workers for an apple recipe share... Just tried one...These are NOT losers for sure! I'll be following you on Pinterest! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks! I'm so glad you like them! I hope your co-workers enjoy them too! ;)

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  16. Will be following you on Pinterest!

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  17. Oh my goodness. These were so amazing! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing these. My sister and I did a blog about them if you want to have a peek. (Here is the link - http://joandsue.blogspot.ca/2012/09/dutch-apple-pie-cookies.html)

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    1. Thanks for letting me know you tried it and blogged about it! I loved your post. You're hilarious! I will be browsing around your blog some more. :)

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  18. P.S. - Love your blog! We are new followers :)

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  19. These were delicious seriously amazing! Thanks!!! http://www.onecreativehousewife.com/2012/09/apple-pie-cookies.html

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    1. You're welcome! And thanks for the credit! Your apple pie-lettes look perfect. :)

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  20. can you freeze them for wedding cookies?

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    1. I've never frozen these, so I'm not sure. My suggestion to you would be to try freezing a batch now and see how they turn out. If you do freeze them, I think you would need to "freshen them up" in an oven for a few minutes after thawing because I expect that they would get a little moist. Please let me know if you try it, but I definitely recommend a test run.

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  21. How well do these cookies travel? If I stack them in a box will the topping come off effectively making reverse sandwich cookies (which, I am not trying to achieve...) Thanks!

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    1. I think that they should travel fine. The topping will stay put. You should definitely put some wax paper between the layers of cookies, though.

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  22. I made these cookies tonight and they are DE-LISH! They did not turn out quite as pretty as yours but there is always next time, and according the the husband and the kids there must be a NEXT time. Thank you so much for sharing.

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    1. You're welcome! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed them. :)

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  23. I LOVE apple pie and these are soooooo good! Awesome recipe and easy! Thank you for sharing!

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    1. You're welcome! And thanks for letting me know you're enjoying the recipe! :)

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  24. Hi! I made these last night and really enjoyed the flavor... But I tried to make the apple pie filling myself and had some trouble. I wonder if I did something wrong or just used too much liquid? The filling never fully thickened and led to some very tasty, but very flat, cookies. Any tips? Thanks!

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    1. The only things that I can think of are that maybe there was too much liquid, or, I've heard that if you boil corn starch too long that it will un-gelatinize (if that makes sense), or did you use an apple other than green? I've heard that green apples have a higher pectin content, which aids in gelatinizing. Those are my only ideas. What do you think?

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  25. Yes, I too, found you on Pinterest. I am making them now...first batch is cooling and 2nd batch is in the oven. I made some mistakes tho so I will have to try again. First off, I don't think I rolled my crust dough out thin enough because I only got 26 circles. Then (now that the first batch has baked), I think I put too much apple pie filling into the dry ingredients. I peeked in the oven about 3/4 the way through the first batch and my apple pie filling had gooed all over the crusts (couldn't even see the poor little things under there). I hope they turn out better next time. My fault and I think I know where I went wrong. Better luck next time! Thanks for the yummy and fun recipe!

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    1. I'm glad you're thinking about giving it another go. And the crust does start out surprisingly thin. I have had batches turn out oozing over the sides. I think they still taste pretty good, just not as pretty. If the can of apple pie filling has a LOT of goo, I'll scoop a little out before chopping up the apple slices. Maybe I should note that in the recipe.

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  26. How do you think these would reheat if they were made the night befor?e... this is if i wanted them to be similar to hot apple pie. I was thinking about maybe putting them in the oven at 300 for like 5 minutes just to make them warm.. what are your thoughts?

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    1. I think that's a great idea, Cassie. I might put the oven even higher like at 350 to make sure the bottom gets a little crisp, though. I've often thought about doing this, but I don't really serve them at home. I usually take them out, so I don't have the advantage of an oven. If you think of it, let me know how it goes!

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  27. Thanks for the recipe. I made it for Thanksgiving Day and it was delicious.

    http://comoju.blogspot.com.es/2012/12/galletas-de-apple-pie.html

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    1. I'm glad you liked them! And thanks for the link back to my blog. Yours look very cute, and I was able to understand most of what you wrote. :)

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  28. Should the butter be unsalted or salted? Thanks!

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    1. I always use salted butter, unless otherwise noted, and I only use the unsalted rarely. You could use either in this recipe, but I use salted.

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  29. I'm trying these today for my daughter's dance team!! Will make extras for me! Love apples since I live in WA.

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  30. Dance girls loved these lil apple cookies. Baking some tonight for my cookie exchange!!

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  31. Fabulous cookies, thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!!!Mine took about 17 minutes to brown, but I still kept a close eye on them after the 14th minutes, as they brown quickly once they start to. Thank you so much!!!

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    1. Excellent! I'm glad you like the cookies. I've been thinking I need to bake some of these soon too. :)

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  32. Has anyone tried this with cherry or blueberry pie filling? Or pumpkin?

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