Happy birthday, America! (Apple Pie Cookies)

I've been told that pies are the next cupcake. I wasn't convinced. Yes, you can make pies in adorable miniature form in a cupcake pan. But it's just not that portable, you know? They crumble, the filling falls out, it's a whole plate and fork deal. But I think I've found the solution.

Pies in cookies form. Yes, it's true. You can hold them in one hand and eat it while you're working, while you're Facebooking, while you're pinning.. All those things!

The apple pie cookies are a circle of pie crust, an apple dipped in cinnamon sugar and another circle of pie crust. Seal it up, make it pretty, bake it--ta da! Apple pie in hand. I made these for the Fourth of July, because what's a better American dessert than apple pie?

The recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. I didn't change anything because they were perfect the way they were, so I'm just going to link to her original recipe.

Don't worry, I still have photos.

I know pie crust can be a sensitive subject with people. It's really not so bad to make. Just make sure your ingredients are COLD. Living in Seattle, I don't have an issue with this particular aspect. But if you live in a warmer climate (lucky you) and butter starts melting while you're cutting it into the flour, put it back in the fridge. Don't even try to push through. It's not worth it. This is what the dough looked like when I started smooshing it into a ball. Don't add water until it's all stuck into a ball--the crust will hold together even if it looks like there's too much flour. Take a pile in your hand, press, and see if it holds. If it does, you're done! If it doesn't, mo' water.

These here are my new cookie cutters! They're double sided, smooth round on one side and scalloped round on the other. I've used glasses and mugs as circle cutters in the past, but it was just time to get real ones. It was $12 for a set of six on Amazon.

 Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves in sugar

 Leaning tower of apple slices. I got a bag of the small apples at Target and barely had to cut them to size, but for the ones that I did have to cut it was really nice have sharp cookie cutters instead of a rounded drinking glass edge.

Prep for assembly. Clockwise from top left: water, apples, sugar, egg wash, flour, spiced sugar. It was super useful when assembling to have all the bowls in one spot.

Assembly time! I made a couple with the scalloped edges but since you have to press the edges together, it ended up not really mattering.

To get the apple slices, you cut the apples from one side until you get to the core, then repeat on the other side. After that, the apples slices are cut to size. As a result, there's a lot of leftover apple pieces from the trimmings, sides of the core and end slices. I chopped up them up and threw them into a pan with the leftover cinnamon sugar and about 1/3 cup water. I boiled them until there was almost no water and the apples were soft. Ta da! A delicious ice cream topping or more apple pie cookie filling.