Mini Apple Pies Made With 3D Printed Lattice Cutter

Miniature, individual apple pies are great for casual gatherings, they don't require plates and forks and keep the clean up to minimum. Made with sweet pastry and filled with caramel sauce and small, cinnamon infused apple pieces.

I made 3D printed pastry cutters to speed the process and keep the pies looking neat and even. It's a perfect solution for people who don't want to spend ages creating traditional lattice on each miniature pie, also great for people who have to make large quantities of small pies, this methods saves a lot of time and sanity, as well as people who own 3D printers, because let's be honest - if you have a 3D printer you don't need much incentive to fire it up and make something useful.

FOR 10 PIES:

1. PASTRY:
2. 250G ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
3. 125G UNSALTED BUTTER
4. 60G CASTER SUGAR
5. 1 SMALL EGG
6. 1TBS MILK
7. PINCH OF SALT AND 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT

• FILLING:
• 600-700G CRISP APPLES
• 70G CASTER SUGAR
• 2TBS BUTTER
• 1-2 TSP CINNAMON

1. CARAMEL:
2. 100G CASTER SUGAR
3. 35G UNSALTED BUTTER
4. 90ML CREAM
5. 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT, PINCH OF SALT

• PASTRY EGG WASH:
• 1 SMALL EGG
• SPLASH OF MILK

1) (RED) BOTTOM CUTTER, 85MM DIAMETER

2) (YELLOW) LATTICE CUTTER, 95MM DIAMETER

3) (GREEN) COOKIE PRESS

4) (BLUE) COOKIE PRESS HANDLE


Bottom cutter has a second circle cutter inside, it won't cut through pastry, but it will leave a shallow indentation to show how much filling should go in.

Lattice cutter I made is just your traditional square pattern, but that's just basic. You can always make your own lattice cutter with different patterns. Try circles, hearts, flower patterns, geometrical shapes...there are countless possibilities. Notice that the top cutter is larger than the bottom one.

All walls in cutters have to be 0.6mm thick, so they can be printed in one single wall. Print in 0.2 layer height, 10% infill, enable retraction to prevent stringing.

Combine sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan, cook on medium for 6-8 minutes, stir occasionally.

You will know it's ready when caramel thickens and changes colour to light brown. Add vanilla extract and a pinch of salt once it's thickened.

Leave it to cool down to room temperature.

You want caramel to be soft and spreadable.

Peel and cut apples into small, 1/4 inch cubes.

Combine sugar and butter in a saucepan, cook on medium for about 5 min until caramel changes colour to light brown.

Add apples to the saucepan, sprinkle with cinnamon.

Cook on medium heat for 10-15min, stirring occasionally until filling reduces in volume, apples turn light brown and most of the liquid is reduced.

Leave it to cool down.

Put flour, sugar, salt and cold, cubed butter into a food processor, pulse until mixture resembles wet sand.

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and a splash of milk together, keep the food processor running and slowly pour the mixture through a feed hole. Mix for 30 seconds and turn off.

Tip the dough onto floured surface and quickly knead the pastry until it all comes together. Shape into a flattened disc, cover in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.

In case anyone was curious how this recipe looks like with store bought pastry.

In both pictures on the left we have puff pastry, on the right we have shortcrust pastry.

Not much of a difference visually, both rise a little bit, but not enough to distort the pattern.

Puff pastry is not as sweet as home-made shortcrust pastry, so I prefer to use it with sweeter apple varieties. I only ever use sweet shortcrust with crisp apples to balance the flavours.

Cut several sheets of baking paper, big enough to fit your baking tray.

Roll the dough directly on the pre-cut baking paper. Roll it to to 2-3 mm thickness.

Cut 6-8 pie bottoms and leave them on the baking paper. Then, cut 6-8 lattice parts and also leave them on the baking paper until they are needed.

Dip the cutter in a pile of flour beforehand to prevent sticking.

If your room is on a warmer side or you are working with large quantities of dough, you might have to put the rolled out pastry in the fridge for 30 min prior to cutting. The colder the dough, the easier it will be to cut.

Once cut, most of the small dough squares should just fall out on their own, but if they don't, just give them a poke with a chopstick.

This part is not strictly necessary if you are making a regular amount of pies, but if you are making them in large quantities, this 3D printed part might be useful. Long prongs fit within the cutting squares and push out any dough bits that get stuck inside.

If you take a look at the first picture, you will notice that pie bottoms have shallow circles stamped inside them. It's there so it's easy to remember to keep the filling within the circle.

Spread a teaspoon of caramel within a circle.

Put 1 tablespoon (or a little bit more) of apple filling on top of the caramel and flatten it a little bit.

Cover the pie with lattice. Use your fingers to align the edges of the lattice to the edges of the bottom and press the pastry down.

Dip the cookie press in flour, align it with the pie and press it down to seal the top and bottom parts together.

If you want, you can use a regular circular cookie cutter to trim the finished pies, so that the pressed sides look more neat.

Use the pastry brush to cover the cookies with an egg wash. If you want, you can sprinkle the pies with sugar and cinnamon.

Bake at 180C for 20 min. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Keep refrigerated for a maximum of 6 days. Best served warm, microwave for 15-20 seconds before eating.

Can be served on it's own or with a bowl of custard or ice-cream.