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This Thanksgiving I made a bunch of desserts (apple pies, rice puddings, pumpkin flan, and pumpkin pies).  I did lots of individual desserts this year to make it more personal for all of my family members.  My mom and nephew are the rice pudding fans, my brother-in-law loves pumpkin pies,  my dad usually goes for the pumpkin flan, and my husband loves apple desserts. Each dessert was well received, but none was received quite as well as the new family favorite - little apple pies.  My Dad (Jim) gave these the big seal of approval - which is quite a compliment considering Jim isn’t big on desserts.  He loved the crust - which is incredibly flaky and scented with a little orange zest.  The original recipe came from Woman’s Day, but, of course, I took the recipe and modified it to fit my family’s taste. 

Little Apple Pies (Makes 6)

Ingredients

Pastry

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbls. sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold butter, cut small
• 1 Tbls. freshly grated orange peel
• 1/4 cup ice water

Filling

• 3 small Gold Delicious apples
• 6 Tbls. granulated sugar mixed with 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 6 tsp. fresh orange juice

To make pastry in food processor:  Put flour, 1 Tbls. sugar, butter and orange peel in processor; pulse until coarse crumbs form.  Add water all at once; pulse just until dough begins leave sides of bowl.  By hand:  Put flour in a bowl and cut in butter with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form.  Add peel and water; stir with fork until mixture clumps together and a dough forms.

Gather into a ball, flatten and cut into 6 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, flatten, then place each between sheets of plastic wrap.  Roll each with a rolling pin to a 6 inch diameter circle (circles don’t have to be perfect).  Refrigerate while preparing the remaining ingredients.

Peel apples, halve, then core with a melon baller.  Cut wedges to remove stem and bud ends.  Turn halves cut side down and slice thin.

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.  Have a large baking sheet ready.

One at a time, remove dough circles from refrigerator.  Peel off plastic and place dough circle on baking sheet.  Leaving a 1 to 1 1/2 inch border, fan apple slices overlapping on dough.  Sprinkle with 1 Tbls. sugar mixture and 1 tsp. orange juice.  Fold the edges of the pastry over the apples.  Repeat to from 5 more pies.

Bake 10 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake 25 to 30 minutes more until pastry is lightly browned and apples are tender.  Remove pies to wire rack to cool until just warm.  I enjoy serving it with some nice vanilla ice cream.