I have a confession…I’m not a huge fan of apple pie. I know…gasp! How totally unAmerican of me. I love plenty of other pies, though, so I more than make up for it. Unfortunately for my family, as often as I make pies, I rarely think to make apple. So last week, my girl’s school had club day on Friday. Friday is usually a pretty unscheduled day online, with students finishing up assignments, getting extra help, etc. She was super excited that one of the clubs was cooking. I totally thought she’d go for gaming club or book club when she first told me what was being offered. But nope, cooking club it was. I helped her gather ingredients, but other than that, I was totally uninvolved. Her results were beautiful and delicious, so she has now wanted to make them pretty much every day since. But life interferes.

Anyway, she agreed to let me photograph her steps and share the recipe here. We’ve changed very little but have no idea who to credit for the original recipe. So if it’s yours, let me know!

First, peel and dice the apples (about 1/4″ pieces). She used my apple peeler that also slices, and when she was peeling and slicing in one step, my son heard the other girls in the club (they were in a Zoom) go, “Ooooo…..” So funny!

Mix all the other filling ingredients in with the apples.

Then, let the filling sit and get juicy while you prep the crusts. Unroll the crust, and use a biscuit cutter or glass to cut out the circles of dough. Ours is about 3″ in diameter. Cut them as close together as you can, then reroll the dough and cut out the rest. She got 12 crusts from 1 pie crust. Gently press them into your muffin tin, being careful not to puncture them!

Evenly spoon the filling into each one. I think it would be tasty to add a few craisins or fresh cranberries to each one at this point. They’re ready to go in the preheated oven now!

Bake them for 15-20 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes in the tin. When they’re cool enough to handle, remove them and let cool completely on a wire rack. If you don’t get them out of the pan, they tend to stick as they cool completely.

Click here for the downloadable recipe:

Esme’s Easy Apple Tartlets

• Ingredients:
  • 2 apples, peeled and diced (we used Granny Smiths)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 refrigerated rolled pie crust

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in the mixing bowl and let sit while you prep the crusts.
2. Unroll the pie crust on a cutting board or piece of parchment paper. Use the biscuit cutter or glass to cut out as many circles as you can. We got 8 the first time. Then roll the scraps out again, and cut more circles. We ended up with 12 circles from 1 crust.
3. Gently press the dough circles into the muffin tin, going up the sides a little.
4. Spoon the filling into the crusts evenly…it doesn’t take a lot!
5. Carefully slide the tartlets into the preheated oven, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the crust is golden. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes, then remove from tin and let cool on a wire rack. If you wait too long, they may stick to the muffin tin! I think drizzling them with caramel sauce would be the bomb, but I haven’t talked her into that yet.

I have posted apple recipes before, so I’m not totally horrible. I wrote a whole post full of apple recipes, including this Paper Bag Apple Pie…you should check it out!

My mom makes an amazing apple fritter, which is sort of like a giant apple turnover in the most delicious syrup ever. Maybe I’ll have to expand Esme’s repertoire over this holiday break!

I probably won’t post again until after Thanksgiving, so I hope yours is happy and safe (what a weird thing to have become common in everyday language)!