These Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies make pie making easy! Made in a muffin tin with buttery pastry, tender apples, toffee sauce and a buttery crumble topping. They are Autumn in dessert form!
Hiya, how are you all? Had a good weekend? Today I have these amazing Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies to share with you! They are so perfect for Autumn and make pie making ridiculously easy!
You can actually make these Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies even easier by using shop bought pastry! I did make my own shortcrust pastry for this recipe. I developed my pastry recipe years ago and it’s never failed me. It’s the most perfect, buttery, flavourful pastry and you can easily make it savoury or sweet.
But first. Christmas. Are you making any plans? I know everything is so up in the air right now, but we have tentatively made some plans. Obviously it’s dependent on restrictions. Currently we’re still tier 1, so able to mix indoors. I joked with mum, if we’re tier 2 by Christmas, she’ll have to chuck us some ham out of the window and we’ll eat it outside haha!
This Christmas was going to be different anyway, just with what a year 2020 has been. However, Boxing Day is going to be different for us too. For pretty much my whole life, we stayed home on Christmas Day. And then, on Boxing Day we would see the wider family. Boxing Day happened like this for years. Then certain people suddenly decided to stop attending, so it became just us visiting.
We have put up with A LOT over the years. I could write a book about the sh*t we’ve put up with. But still, I’ve gone each year, sat quietly and been polite. This year though? It’s time for change. I should not be in the car, almost being sick and shaking like a leaf with anxiety. All because I have to see someone. That is not a happy Christmas. This year is going to be much more enjoyable. Partly because we’ve moved a lot closer and partly because I only have to see people I want to see.
My husband had already made the decision not to go as he has always been treated with disdain. I didn’t want to go, but was prepared to stay for 30mins or so. But the decision has been made for us. And not by who always gets the blame for things.
I’m relieved. So relieved in fact, that I ended up with a migraine because I’d already started building up the anxiety in my head about how terrible it was going to be. I always get migraines when I get relief at the end of a stressful time.
Something you should know about me. I am the furthest from fake you could be. I don’t scheme, manipulate, twist things, back stab people and I don’t play games. I’m also not a doormat and I will say no to you. If that’s my worst crime, then I can live with myself. You want to start playing a game of not sending cards for a couple of years and then randomly start sending them again? No thank you, I’ll just decide I’m not sending them ever again.
I do not start crap, I end it. I’m nearly 30 years old, this is not the school playground. My dad isn’t going to tell me off, send me to my room and demand I have no opinion. I have no desire to be surrounded with toxic people. I will cut you out of my life because I don’t want conflict and I have no time for negativity. My best life advice for anyone would be: surround yourself with people who have pure intentions and support and love you. Not people who are constantly trying to bring you down or turn people against you. Tomorrow is not a guarantee, so do what makes you happy.
Let’s talk about making these Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies…
There are quite a few steps, but it really isn’t hard. It’s just making the component pieces and then marrying them together.
And boy… when these components are married together? SO MUCH FLAVOUR.
These Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies came from a recipe I made a few years ago; Crumble Mince Pies. They were a huge hit in my house, even for my husband who doesn’t like mince pies.
So, this year I thought I’d make the Autumn equivalent. I don’t really have the patience for making full on pies and I love anything mini. So these Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies seemed like a no brainer.
I started by peeling, coring and cutting 3 apples, mixing them with sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. I left them to one side to get beautiful and glossy while I made the other elements.
Next, I made the crumble topping. These are so easy to make and require just a few ingredients: butter, flour and sugar. That’s it! Rub it all together until it clumps together and then crumbles and you’ve got the crumbly top for these pies!
The final step is to make the pastry for the base. You can also buy shortcrust pastry if you’d rather. I made a dough with flour, sugar, salt, butter and 1 egg, before rolling it out to cut into rounds.
Assembly time! I sprayed a muffin tin with cooking spray and gently laid my pastry rounds into the holes. I then filled each hole with the apples, spooned 1tsp of toffee sauce on top and spooned some of the crumble mixture on top of that. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes and that’s all you need to do. Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies coming right up!
Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies
Ingredients
- FOR THE APPLE PIE FILLING:
- 3 medium-large sized apples, whichever are your favourites, I used Granny Smith
- 1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- FOR THE TOPPING:
- 2/3 cup (92g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1/2 stick (56g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 12 tsp toffee sauce, I used Joseph's.
- FOR THE PASTRY:
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 1/2 cups (210g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (50g) white/caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1-2 tbsp ice cold water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F and spray a 12 hole muffin tin with cooking spray. First up we're going to make the apple pie filling, so it has some time to sit. Peel, core and cut the apples into small chunks. Place them in a medium sized bowl, then add the light brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornflour and vanilla extract. Stir until all the apples are coated in the flour mix and leave to one side.
- Make the topping: Place the flour, sugar and butter into a small/medium bowl and rub between your fingers until the mixture starts to clump up and become larger and smaller crumbles. You can use a pastry cutter, but for crumble toppings, I find hands better as the heat from your hands works better on the butter to create those larger crumbles.
- Leave the crumble topping to one side and make the pastry: Place the butter, flour, sugar and egg into your food processor and pulse until you have a coarse breadcrumb texture. Then add ice cold water, 1tbsp at a time and pulse for at least 30 seconds between each addition. When the mixture balls up and becomes one big lump you're done.
- Alternatively, you can place all the pastry ingredients in a large bowl and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. Once you have a coarse breadcrumb texture, add the water 1tbsp at a time, bringing the mixture together with your hands or a spoon until a dough forms.
- Flour your work surface and tip the pastry out. Flour the top of the dough and then roll out until the pastry is around 2-3mm thick. Use a 9-10cm round cutter to cut 12 rounds out of the pastry. You may have to cut a few, then re roll the pastry to get the rest.
- Gently lift a pastry round over to your sprayed muffin tin and then press the centre down into the hole, while easing the sides in so you don't get pastry folds. Be very gentle so as not to tear the pastry. The pastry should come 3/4 of the way up the sides of the hole in your tin.
- Divide the apple mixture between the 12 holes. Fill each pastry round level. You want a little bit of the sauce that's been created by the mixture sitting for a while in each one. But be careful not to flood the pastry.
- Once each mini pie is filled with the apple mixture, spoon 1tsp of Toffee Sauce onto the top of the apples. You don't have to spread it much as this will happen while baking, just drop it into the centre of each mini pie and smooth the top over so it doesn't stand too tall.
- Now for the final layer! Sprinkle each mini pie with some of the crumble mixture. You'll have more than enough, so you can add as much as you want. If you want to entirely cover the top, go for it. I prefer to have bits of apple and sauce peek through. With the extra crumble mixture, I crumble it onto a small baking tray and bake it for 10-15 mins at 200C/400F, until golden, to create a crunchy snack!
- Place your mini pies into the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the top is golden and the sauce is bubbling. If you poke a piece of apple with a knife, it should be soft. Leave to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes (just so the toffee sauce isn't molten) and then use a sharp knife to gently ease the mini pies out. The pastry itself shouldn't be stuck, but if the toffee sauce has leaked then you'll just have to cut through that bit. Place the pies on a wire rack to cool completely.
- You can serve these pies with vanilla ice cream and more toffee sauce, dusted with powdered sugar, hot, cold. They're delicious any way!
- Mini Toffee Apple Crumble Pies will keep at room temperature, in an airtight container, for 5 days.
Notes
Annie is a self-taught baker, recipe developer and food photographer, who has an obsession with dessert and beauty! 
