These easy mini apple pies are full of sweet and spicy apples. It’s like having a little apple pie right there in your hand!
Okay, even though I love to make things like butter and ricotta cheese and bread from scratch, never let it be said that there isn’t a time and place in my life for things like pre-made crescent roll dough. Yep, the kind in the tube that you get to pop open. Because crescent roll dough can lead to things like perfect little individual easy mini apple pies that you can hold in your hand, and possibly even eat two of since they are so small and delicious and impossible to resist.
This perfect-for-apple-picking-season treat could not be any easier. First, pick a couple of apples. Or do as I do and have your personal apple picker pick them for you.
Peel and core and dice them up into little squares and then saute them in a little butter and cinnamon and brown sugar until they are nice and soft. Now pop that crescent roll tube open (and side note: why did they stop letting us whack it on the side of the counter to open it? Remember that? Now we are supposed to press a spoon to the seam to open it, and I’m sorry but that is nowhere NEARLY as satisfying).
Separate the crescent roll dough into little triangles and pop a spoonful of apple mixture at the wide end. Roll it up carefully, making sure that none of the apple filling is peeking out, and press the sides to seal it up. Now put the little apple pies on a baking sheet lined with foil and cook them until they are just golden brown, about 10 minutes or so.
This next part is the hardest…let them cool a little bit on a wire rack. Your kitchen is going to smell like apple pie while you are waiting, and I’m here to tell you that’s not going to make the waiting any easier. Once they are cool enough to handle, shake some confectioner’s sugar on top (I like to do this by putting the sugar in a fine mesh strainer and tapping the side of it – works perfectly as a sugar shaker!) and then those little apple pies are all yours! Or you can share. Or not. I leave that part up to you!
Easy Mini Apple Pies
Prep Time: 15 minutes- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 mini pies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stovetop and Oven
- Cuisine: American
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Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4 inch dice
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
- One 8 ounce containers of crescent roll dough (I used Pillsbury)
- Confectioner’s sugar for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with foil.
- Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add apples, sugar, cinnamon and nuts (if using) and saute for about 5 minutes or until apples start to soften. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Open the container of dough and carefully separate the perforated triangles – you will have 8 triangles. Spoon a generous tablespoon of apple mixture onto the wide end of each triangle. Carefully roll up the triangle so that the pointed end wraps around the outside, making sure the apple mixture doesn’t spill out the sides. Press the sides of the mini pie gently to seal it.
- Transfer the pies to the prepared cookie sheet and bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, cool for about 10 minutes, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and serve warm!
Fantastic idea! I will try this on Saturday.
Hurray! Hope you love ’em. :)
you are my hero!! we are going apple picking this weekend and I have a morning MOMS Club meeting next week that is going to love these!! thanks!!!
Have fun Kris – I love apple picking!
Trader Joe rolls and biscuits are good. Take their rolls and spread with their Cookie Butter Spread, roll and bake. Insanely good! Cookie butter is like peanut butter ( on the shelf next to it)
But tastes like cinnamon ginerbread. Enjoy!
Cookie butter??? I think I just fainted. Wow!
Sounds like Speculoos in Europe.
I think that is what it is – that word is on the label. (As you can tell, I went and got me some.) :)
As so often happen, I find reflection here on the life questions I personally have frequently asked, to wit: why did they stop letting us whack it on the side of the counter to open it?
I know we all confront these issues and I appreciate someone who addresses them headon….
Did that sound sarcastic? Absolutely not so intended. It is good to know someone else has such reflections. Oh, and I look forward to the recipe, too!
Ha! Not sarcastic at all – we think along the same lines! :)
I am going apple picking this week on vacation. Lots of apples here in NY. I will make these for sure. I only use those rolls for pigs in a blanket. Great to have another use for them..
Have fun apple picking (and then baking!)
These sound Wonderful. Will be making these for sure and may also experiment by using canned pie fillings as well
Thank U 4 the recipes
ColleenB.
My pleasure! Let me know how the canned version turns out when you have a sec. :)
yummy! i’ve got some peaches just begging to get baked and this sounds like a perfectly easy solution! thank you!
Oooooh, peaches! Perfection.
I read this to my 6 year old daughter. When she saw your Southern husband picking apples, she asked me if he was Johnny Appleseed!
And now I just read your comment to my husband and it made his whole day! (I may have to now call him Johnny for a while…) :) :)
How did you know I had an apple tree right outside my back door? I’ve been dodging those hanging branches with their hard little lumps all summer! Heh.
Now, I will get my revenge. I also just happen to have a tube of those crescent rolls in the fridge. Serendipity? And I’m going to be a rebel and whack that roll on the counter edge like it was 1969, or whenever. ;) Great idea.
Go for it!! It’s so satisfying.
Brilliant, Kate, just brilliant.
Of course, there is no such thing as crescent dough or anything like it where I live but when we get back to the US, this will be yet another one of your recipes I will make.
I see a weight gain in my future :)
besitos, C
Hurry up home – you have lots of cooking to do! :)
Made these tonight! While they were delicious, they were not nearly as pretty as yours. I guess I will have to make more so I can practice rolling them up!
As long as they taste great that’s what counts! Although practicing could definitely be fun. :)
These tasted phenomenal! But mine all exploded…. I think I may have added too much apple :(
Oh no! I totally understand the temptation to put in a lot of apple. But next time you will know how much to use, and they will still taste so good! :)
I was looking for a way to make mini apple pies and this helped me out so much!! I made them for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! I used the can filling though.
When I was making them, they keep exploding. I don’t put a lot of apple in it though. Is there a certain way to roll up the crescent? I want to eat a lot of the bread instead of the apple.
Hi Anne – I just make sure to press the ends together really firmly. One thing you might try if you still have trouble is to brush the edges with some beaten egg before you press them together and that might help keep them firmly together.
Would these freeze well?
Hi Tina – I haven’t tried freezing them, but I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t freeze just fine.
Would it work if I used homemade pie crust dough cut in the shape of crescent rolls if I can’t find crescent roll dough?
Thanks!
Hi there! It would, but that crust is going to be thicker than the crescent roll dough, so I would try and get a little more apple filling in there so that the filling and the crusts are balanced. Crescent roll dough is pretty easy to find in your hair section though – it’s the kind in the tube. :)