Dutch Apple Tarts or Using What's In The Freezer.

This past Thanksgiving, for some reason I wish I could remember, I made extra pie/tart dough and so I rolled it out and put it into mini tart pans and froze them.



They've been taking up a lot of room in there for 2, 3 months whatever now and it can be a pain to look for that bacon or pound of butter you KNOW is in there but you can't find it because of all the other crap involved. My mom found this recipe for Dutch apple crisp on a box of Wegmans pie dough (store-bought pie dough - gross) and it sounded delicious and a great way to get those tart shells out of the freezer. Plus anything with a crumble topping gets extra points from me.

This original recipe is for 1 9-inch pie. Obviously I used 7 small ones. I don't think it really matters too much in the case of apple pie, since the apples tend to get soft and smoosh down a bit while they bake. I packed the apples pretty heavily into these, and it was perfect. If I made these again I might double the crumble recipe and really pack that on top, but these were great with the amount of crumble it calls for. Here I'll give the recipe for the regular 9-inch pie, since I'm assuming most normal people don't randomly have some tart shells stocked in the back of the deep-freeze.

Dutch Apple Crisp adapted from a Wegmans recipe on a box of pie dough.

1 pie crust (homemade, store-bought, whatever I don't care. Whatever is easier for you, really. But I'm a huge stickler for homemade. It's just so much better. Alright moving on.)

Apple mixture:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (originally called for 1/4 teaspoon, I bumped it up)
Pinch of salt

6 medium-sized Granny Smith apples



Crumble topping:
1 cup AP flour
1 stick slightly cold butter, cut into small chunks
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Prepare the pie crust, and line a 9-inch pan with it, then place this on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Blend the sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl.

Peel, core, and slice the apples thinly. I actually cut my apples into quarters like this so they'd fit more into the tart shells:



Then pour the dry sugar-spice mixture on top of the apples in a large bowl and toss them well to combine everything. Let this sit while you make the crumble topping.

Cut the butter into the flour and brown sugar in a medium-sized bowl until the mixture looks something like this:



Then pour the apples into the pie crust, and top with the crumbles, packing lightly to make them not fall off while baking.



Bake for about an hour, or until it gets golden brown on top and the apple mixture is nice and bubbly.

Wait for it to cool off for a while and then dig in. I bet it'd be out of this world with some homemade vanilla ice cream - you know - the kind with real vanilla seeds in it? Yum.