Mini Apple Pies (A Part of This Complete Breakfast)
ByWho decided that sugar coated sugar dobbers and frosted sprinked poptarts were the best way to start the day? I also want to know why the aforementioned choices…or a pancake drenched in syrup is considered a great breakfast food…yet an apple pie is considered to be a dessert.
Remember, I like to think outside the box when it comes to breakfast. I’m all about Giant Breakfast Cookies, Breakfast Cake, Funnel Cake, Whole Wheat Donuts…and if you recall…even Homemade Ice Cream for breakfast. And what about our Valentine’s day Peach Cobbler? Yes, I think breakfast should be enticing, delicious, nutritious and sometimes even fun. And I think Apple Pie should be okay to eat for breakfast.
This Mini Apple Pie recipe is a new one I’ve come up with as I work on creating more Healthy Make-Ahead Meals. These freeze well (unbaked) – then you can just pull out a little pie (or 3) per person and bake.
Make them for breakfast…and your family will smell them baking, jump out of bed and come running into the kitchen and plow you over onto the kitchen floor (out of joy and love of course).
You can make these a couple of different ways: Mini Apple Pies, or Apple Pie Pockets…depending on what works best for you. I use the same crust recipe I use for my Homemade Pizza Pockets. Follow the same instructions for the pizza pockets to create an Apple Pie Pocket…
The following directions are for Mini Apple Pies:
Crust:
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 t. sea salt
1 cup melted butter
1 cup plain yogurt
Stir ingredients together until thoroughly mixed. Use the dough right away to create pockets or pies…or let the dough sit overnight on the countertop to break down the phytates and make the grains more digestable. This dough is MUCH easier to work with if you work it like playdough in your hands a while before you try to roll it out.
Filling:
3 pounds of apples – about 11-12 smallish apples (any kind you like)
1/4 – 3/4 cup sucanat (your preference)
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Topping:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2-4 Tablespoons sucanat
3 Tablespoons melted butter
To make Mini Apple Pies:
Peel apples and cut them into bite sized chunks.
Add sucanat and cinnamon.
Stir well and cook over medium heat until apples are
tender and a syrup has formed (about 10 minutes).
In the meantime, separate dough into 21-24 pieces.
Roll each piece into a little circle with a rolling pen.
As you can see, I am NOT a perfectionist. If I was making these for a
ladies’ brunch or something…I might take the time to make them pretty.
But for my family of boys?
Do you think they really care if their pies are pretty?
They eat them in three minutes flat. Thus my sloppy dough squishing.
Squish (or place nicely) your dough circles into well buttered MUFFIN PANS. Using a muffin pan for these Mini Apple Pies eliminates the need to go buy 24 little mini pie pans.
Fill each (unbaked) crust with apple pie filling.
In a bowl, stir together topping ingredients until the dry ingredients are moistened.
I find that melting the butter and stirring it into the flour, oats and sucanat makes a great crumb topping…much less effort than “cutting in the butter”.
Sprinkle topping all over the top of your little pies.
Try if you can to be as messy about this process as I am. Sheesh.
Freeze your pies in your buttered muffin pans for a couple of hours.
Remove your muffin pans from the freezer and allow them to sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes. Use a fork to gently pry the pies out of the pan. Place them carefully into freezer bags and put them bag into the freezer.
To bake your Mini Apple Pies:
Take desired number of pies out of the freezer and place them on a baking pan. Bake in a 375° oven for 35-45 minutes. You can let them thaw first if you want…but I find that the frozen pies bake just fine!
And now I’d like to point out that (depending on how much you use) there is about 1/2 cup of sucanat divided by 24 little pies…making this a very healthy, very low in sugar breakfast. Much less even than my Applesauce Bread or something otherwise considered a breakfast food.
Bring on the Breakfast Pie! Shucks…maybe we should even serve it with Ice Cream!
What’s your opinion about serving cobbler or pie for breakfast? Do I sound like a weirdo? (Wait, don’t answer that.)
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Need more healthy and family friendly breakfast recipes? I’ve got a whole page of ‘em here! And yes, would you believe…you can easily make Homemade Poptarts!!
Two words: Oh Yum!
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Kim J. Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 12:51 am
I remember my mom being chastised 40 years ago from my 2nd grade teacher for serving me homemade that she was feeding me apple pie for breakfast before school. My teacher had no rebuttal when my mom debated that her homemade apple pie and glass of milk was more nutritious than the glazed
donut and coffee with cream and sugar that the teacher had for her breakfast. Mom always felt is was more important that we ate something, whether it was the conventional
breakfast fare or not, than to go to school on an empty stomach like
many of my classmates did.
You go ahead and serve apple pie for breakfast… btw… what time is breakfast? LOL.
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Those are adorable and a great breakfast idea! Remember, some people like pizza for breakfast, and I’m always up for apple pie!
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these look very yummy! thanks for giving the ok on not feeling guilty about eating these for breakfast. i was wondering, do you ever order your sucanat from azure standard? or amazon only? which way is cheaper? i want to buy in bulk (even a 2 lb bag would be ok) verses the tiny sugar packets.
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Laura Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
I usually do order a big bag of sucanat from Azure Standard because it is cheaper than Amazon. BUT, since I have been able to get it for free from Amazon with swagbucks…that of course is cheaper. :) If I had to pay money though…I’d be getting it from Azure again. Be careful though because last I checked Azure had two kinds: an organic and a non organic. The non organic was NOT the good stuff…NOT the dehydrated cane sugar juice. It was like white sugar with molasses added back in or something like that.
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My mom and I are all about eating leftover apple pie for breakfast. It is in fact, my favorite but I often am very shy to admit it. So needless to say, I’m over the moon over this recipe. Thank you.
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Bring on the ice cream – sounds good to me. We have a ‘special breakfast’ every Saturday morning and often eat something that might be considered a ‘dessert’.
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Yummy!
I think its great for breakfast!!!
Fruit – grains- a little sweetener-
Beats the box anyday!!!!
-BTW, enjoying my greens drink! Thanks again for the giveaway!
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Oh, my goodness! Yay! I look forward to making these. I was recently eating a pizza pockets and someone thought I as eating an apple turnover.
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These look great. I’ve never understood why donuts and danishes were breakfast food and pie and cake were not. We often eat leftover pie for breakfast and the day after anyone’s birthday, we have birthday cake. If you let the dough sit overnight, do you leave it covered on the counter or put it in the fridge?
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Yes, I’m sorry I forgot those details…covered on the counter all night for soaking.
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IF… we have any pie leftovers, we eat it for breakfast! And the only time I eat a fried egg is IF the leftover pie is apple. There is just something wonderful about a fried egg and apple pie!
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mmmm those look so good! It was tradition in my family when I was growing up to eat the cake for breakfast the morning after a birthday, or to eat the pie for breakfast after thanksgiving, etc.
I agree, there is no worthwhile nutrition in most commercial breakfast cereals…just sugar, sugar, and more sugar!
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Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe & for including complete instructions on how to freeze, reheat, and cook them. Most recipes skip this important step… I’ll have to remember it for my future recipe posts too. You have a great site here :)
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I love this idea, but coming from a long line of diabetics (I am not)…where’s the protein? After fasting all night, I am very careful about making sure we all have a lot of protein at breakfast to avoid an insulin dump. We will occasionaly do donuts or something like that, but I worry about it then too.
Maybe I could pair a yummy pie or cobbler with scrambled eggs??? LOL
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 8:29 am
Very good point. Eggs are definitely in order here!
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I know what I’m making this weekend! These look so good and I know the kids would be crazy about having pie for breakfast – bacon would be good with these too! :-)
Thanks!
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Yeah I don’t serve sugary foods in the morning. Just because of the sugar high then the hard FALL off the sugar. I already need a nap by 1.. I don’t need to make it at 8 am lol.
Now, I never used/had succanut… do you have the same side effects?
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Well, sucanat IS still sugar, so if I eat too much, I do feel yucky. But, unlike white sugar, sucanat still has nutrients in it…so the effect is very different, especially if eaten in small amounts like these little pies!
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Danielle Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Gotcha… I might have to buy some.
Now I’m used to the awful white sugar (lol) how does the sucanat compare in taste, or doesn’t it?
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Sucanat tastes SO good…a bit molassesy, but not too strong. I think it has a rich flavor…instead of just tasting empty and sweet.
These look fabulous and I can’t wait to try them. We also love Pumpkin Pie for breakfast … mmmmmmmm
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Sounds good. Succanut sounds great, but looks expensive. Do think it’d work to substitute honey?
Btw, I love your website. I’ve been checking it for about half a year now–ever since my husband and I returned from China, where we lived and worked for two years, and I had to try and remember how to cook American food in an American kitchen. Thanks! =)
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Yes, you can definitely substitute honey for sucanat. Sucanat is pricey…but I don’t always have a great source for honey…which makes HONEY pricey for me!!
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Laura,
This is my first post. I have been pouring over your site the last week or two & am loving it. So many recipes to try so little time lol! The apple pies look awesome. Definitely will try them soon. This house loves this kind of thing for breakfast. We usually have a coffee cake type of thing once a week, soaked overnight for extra nutrition. We use organic, raw milk & the kids like to put it ON the coffee cake, like a bowl of cereal. So I figure that helps with protein. Thanks for another yummy recipe.
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Thank you for this recipe.
@Rach I have used honey successfully in all things apple.
Bacon sounds wonderful with apple pie to me. I am thinking a buttermilk pie I make would be good for breakfast. It does have a lot of sugar in it, so I will have to see how I can change that recipe a bit.
Kris in Oregon
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Okay…BUTTERMILK PIE sounds SO GOOD! Please can I take a peek at the recipe?! If not, that’s okay, but WOW it sounds so good!
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Kris Mays Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:44 am
I got it from the September 2008 Better Homes and Gardens issue. Here is a copy of it here:http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/recipes/articles/2008/08/27/20080827pies0827rec9.html
My family loves it and I’m sure it can be made with alternative sweetener, i just ahveb’t tried it, yet. I can see it converting over to the NT way very easily using your crust recipe.
Enjoy! Kris
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Kris Mays Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Sorry for typos!
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Thank you!!!
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Thank you!
I am reading through the Little House books with my children (2 1/2 & just 5) and we are now on “Farmer Boy” and they always have pies for breakfast! Sounds good to me!
What a good way to get whole wheat and fruit into our family. ;-)
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oh, yum! i LOVE apple pie!
we’re a dairy-free house. is there anything i can substitute in the pie crust instead of using yogurt? (i bake with a dairy-free butter substitute, so i just need something for the yogurt…)
thanks!
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:04 am
I’m not coming up with any ideas right now…maybe some of my readers will have experience with this one. However, you could just use another pie crust recipe, which would be flour, butter, salt and water. Don’t know why this freezing concept wouldn’t work with a regular pie crust!
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melanie Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I’ve seen it recommended to use coconut oil in place of butter for pie crust… which would make it non-dairy. Sounds worth a try!
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melanie Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Oh I’m a ditz, sorry — don’t know what to sub for the yogurt b/c I’m
not familiar with dairy-free options on that. :-(
Elizabeth Reply:
March 28th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Coconut milk yogurt might be a good sub. In my area there is a
company called So Delicious that makes coconut milk yogurt and ice
cream, or you can make your own.
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Jaime Kiser Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 11:19 am
We’re dairy-free here too! You should be able to use soy yogurt and soy butter in the recipe just
fine. You just may have to use more flour to thicken it up.
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Rachel Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Jaime,
We are vegans here and I agree with you on the soy yogurt- Stoneybrook Fields makes one call O’Soy.
It’s yum. And for butter? EARTH BALANCE!!!! It will knock your socks off! I love it more than we did butter!!! Instead of Sucanat- Go with Agave or Brown Rice Syrup… and I think tapioca, potato starch or arrowroot flour would help thicken (if needed?) Good Luck!
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I have to make these soon! Just need to get some apples.
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Hi Laura, Maybe I missed something, but when are you going to finish you story about your food journey? I really enjoyed reading that.
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Laura Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Ugh, so sorry. I REALLY am going to finish writing that. In fact I have my next post almost finished. I’m just having a hard time fitting everything in!! Look for the next “installment” sometime next week! Glad to know you’re enjoying it!
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Thank you Laura! I love that the crust is soaked, and I’m dying to try this, so I think I’m going to have to buy some apples so I can soak the crust tonight and make them for breakfast tomorrow! I love eating leftover apple pie for breakfast, so warm fresh healthier apple pie for breakfast is going to be even better. I’m trying to incorporate more coconut oil into our diets, so I might try using that for the crust instead of butter, we’ll see how it goes!
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Oh, and Laura, I noticed recently that Azure is now carrying buckets of honey. You might want to check it out if you are looking for some.
Kris
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karen Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Costco had HUGE buckets of honey recently–I have nightmares of honey
buckets dropped and shattered all over my house. Honey on the ceiling
anyone?
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These look SO good! I just made your homemade pizza pockets a few weeks ago, and we absolutely loved them.Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I was already planning on making another batch of pizza pockets today since I have to pull all of the pizza “stuff” out of the fridge for supper tonight anyway. But now I think I’m making a double batch of the dough…one for pizza pockets and one for a batch of these delicious-looking mini apple pies. I already have chopped up apples in the freezer, so no excuses!
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Are you kidding? I always say that apple pie is nothing more than toast and jam. Is it not? Lately our breakfasts have consisted of apple crisp and breakfast cookies. I too make pancakes, but then use the leftovers to make pancake sandwiches. However, I really like the mini apple pies idea. In fact, I think my daughter would love to help with those. Thanks for posting this!!!
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These look awesome! I’ve been looking for a healthy, fast and easy breakfast – in fact, I posted a “recipes wanted” post earlier this week! I’ll try these out. Thanks!
http://thesavedquarter.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/wanted-your-best-recipe-for-a-portable-healthy-breakfast/
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Hi,
I have heard that salt inhibits the phytate breakdown, which is why it’s suggested you add it after the soaking. So, I’m thinking of trying this & waiting to add the salt – kneading it into the dough at that point (since you said it “kneads” to be worked like playdough anyways- ha!) :) Hopefully that will work!
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Hi Laura,
I have been enjoying your blog so much and have made quite a few of your yummy recipes over the past few months. I was very excited to see this breakfast post as I am really trying to feed my precious kiddos less out of the box and more wholesome breakfast foods. So, I have my first question for you. What is the difference between sucanat and rapadura and can I use rapadura to make the crust for the mini apple pies? I just bought my first bag of rapadura about a month ago and have yet to open it, I think it is about time I give it a try.
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Teresa Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I got so excited about my first question that I asked if I could use the rapadura in the crust and I meant the filling. lol:)
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Laura@HeavenlyHomemakers Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Rapadura is the SAME thing as sucanat: dehydrated cane sugar juice. I recommend both…I’ve just been able to buy sucanat for a lesser price lately. Rapadura is basically a “brand name” for sucanat…kinda like Kleenex is a brand name for tissues.
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I have very much enjoyed reading your blog. You are very inspiring to keep on using whole grains and making my kefir and so on.
I was raised eating my mom’s homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, and many other things of that sort that are certainly better than boxed foods, just not the norm. The main time I make chocolate chip cookies is for breakfast. I mix them up the night ahead of time and we have cookies and milk for breakfast!
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I can’t wait to try these. I was recently thinking about making apple crisp for breakfast. This morning we had homemade fruit pizza (with just a small amount of sugar).
I think I will make a double batch of dough to make these and pizza pockets for the freezer this weekend. Thanks again for sharing all your great recipes!
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You know, The more I read your blog, the more I like you!!!!! My kind of momma!!! I agree with the “it has less sugar, it must be more healthy montra. :) I shall have to try this!….. maybe with whipped cream? Then you have your dairy too. Of course, it’s the same with icecream….. but wait, does whipped cream have less sugar than icecream??? Now there’s the question. At any rate, I shall have to try these soon. Got some free apples and need to make something good.
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Laura-
If I am going to make these into Apple Pie Pockets, do I sprinkle the topping on top of the apples before folding the crust, or just leave off the topping entirely?
Can’t wait to try-looks so yummy!
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Laura Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Oh sorry, forgot about that detail. You can just leave the crub topping off when you make these into pockets.
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What’s the conversion for using reguar sugar and white flour? (Hubby hates whole wheat anything and sugar alternatives.
Can you use peaches or blueberries?
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Laura Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
You can substitute sugar for sucanat, white flour for whole wheat…one to one.
Definitely you can use peaches or blueberries!! YUMMY!
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We made a half batch of these for *dessert* last night and they were SO good! My family thanks you immensely! I’m so glad someone else figured out that melted butter makes just as good a crust as the “cut in” kind because I can’t stand cutting in butter! Thanks!
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How much Splenda could I use as a substitute?
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Laura Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
I’m sorry I’m not familiar with splenda as a substitute to know how much would be the correct amount.
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Annie Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Generally, you’d use Splenda in place of white sugar using a one to one ratio. So if you’d substitute the sucanat with sugar also using a one to one ratio, I’m sure you could substitute the Splenda for the sucanat one to one.
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These sound really good! I like to make monster cookies and have them for breakfast.
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we always have very sharp cheese with apple pie
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Thanks for sharing the recipe!! I was looking for a healthier dessert to serve when I have some friends for lunch next week. Looks like I found it!! :)
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So, if I don’t have any sucant, what else could I use? Would sugar in the raw work the same? Or honey? And would they be the same ratio???
I CANNOT wait to make these!!!!!!!!!
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Laura Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Yep, you can exchange sugar in the raw one to one for the sucanat. Hope you like them!
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These look great and best of all (for my family at least)- no eggs… my 2 year old is allergic and I am having a very hard time finding good food that doesn’t have eggs (especially baked goods and breakfast!)
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so apperantely my sweet tooth is itching to have a cavity in it… if i wanted to make the crust a little sweeter, could i add just a bit of sugar in the recipe? would i add it before or after the soaking? thanks
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Laura Reply:
March 25th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Hehe…add it after soaking! Sugar prevents the phytates from breaking down in the wheat like they should!
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We make/eat breakfast cookies here, so I see nothing wrong with apple pie for breakfast!! Growing up we, also, ate pie for breakfast, pumpkin pie was the favorite!
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These turned out really good.
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here in new england, we always eat yesterdays apple pie for breakfast! us yankees have it with a wedge of extra sharp cheddar on the side, and a TRUE yankee eats it with a knife.
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I was wondering if you could bake some directly in the muffin tin instead of freezing them first, and if so, is it the same baking time and temp? I have my dough soaking tonight and can’t wait to try these!
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Laura Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:59 am
Sure, you can bake them directly in the pan, just make sure they are buttered well! Same time and temp!
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I made these last night and stuck them in the freezer, we are now enjoying an apple pie breakfast! The crust was easy to work with, but still turned out tender and yummy. When I rolled out the small pieces of crust for the pies I stacked them up with a square of parchment paper separating each piece. I then pushed the crust with parchment paper still on the back of it into the muffin tins. That way I didn’t have to butter 24 little cups. It worked great and the pies popped right out of the tin this morning. I left the paper on to bake the pies. Thanks for the great recipe!
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Katie, that’s a great idea. I just may do that. I also plan to make these for breakfast on mother’s day.
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We made these last week and have had them several times already! Delicious! Thanks so much for a great recipe!
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I can’t wait to make these this week! What’s not to like? And we enjoy this sort of “unconventional” breakfast too. Variety is key and it’s fun to mix it up, especially with a recipe like this one. Thanks for sharing…
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