Single serving deep dish apple pie | for Thom, with love

Single serving deep dish apple pie | for Thom, with love

Introducing for Thom, with love - a new series documenting the small batch recipes I create for my favorite man, chock full of love. Over the course of the past half decade, I've witnessed Thom eat his fair share of baked goods - and in the process I discovered that sometimes all he needs is a single serving of chocolate chip cookies because the man has no self control when cookies are involved. And if you leave an entire batch at his disposal, he'll eat them all and ask you to make more. Then he'll eat those, too, and complain about his stomach aching and you'll decide it's time to start developing small batch recipes. So if your favorite person is like Thom, surely they'll appreciate these recipes. And so will you because they can be thrown together without having to dirty heavy mixing machines or three baking sheets or every single measuring device you own.

The recipes, they're good. Straight forward and equally as delicious as a full batch, but without all of the elbow grease required to scoop 36 cookies or roll out a 10" pie crust. The selling point, for me, is that small batch recipes don't produce any waste. Not that anything really goes to waste around here because I'm the lady who shows up at my neighbor's door at 10 o'clock at night, begging her to take a container of brownies away because Bad things will happen if you don't. The other selling point is the expression on Thom's face when he realizes I've made something special just for him.

Friends, I've been saying it for years: the best way to a man's heart is, without a doubt, through his stomach.

Pie crust ingredients
We be (pastry) cuttin'
Apple
Apple filling
Heart cutouts
Ready for the oven
Single serving deep dish apple pie | for Thom, with love
Single serving deep dish apple pie | for Thom, with love

Notes: If you prefer a sweeter pie crust, feel free to increase the sugar to one full teaspoon. But I promise you won't require it if you fill the pie with the full 6 teaspoons (2 tablespoons) of sugar. This recipe requires the use of one deep dish 4" tartlet pan (although I suppose a ramekin would work, as well). I got my tartlet pans in a set at Williams-Sonoma, but if you like getting ripped off, you can get them individually at Sur la Table (my least favorite kitchen store in the history of kitchen stores) (look at the price difference per tart pan - $5.66). Greedy asswads.

SINGLE SERVING DEEP DISH APPLE PIE

Crust
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/2 tsp cane sugar
Pinch of fine sea salt
3 tbsp vegan butter, cold
2-3 tbsp water, ice cold

Filling
4-6 tsp cane sugar
1 tsp potato starch
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
One medium apple, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp lemon juice, optional

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly oil a 4" deep dish tart pan; set aside. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter, using a pastry cutter or two knives, until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few larger chunks. Add two tablespoons of the water and mix with fingers until a smooth dough forms. If the dough feels a little dry, add a bit more water. Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes then wrap with plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

To make the filling, stir together the sugar (I used 5 teaspoons), starch, and cinnamon. Add the apples and lemon juice; toss to coat and set aside. Line a flat surface with parchment paper and sprinkle with flour. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/4" thick. Fit to prepared tart pan, making sure it's pressed into the bottom into the scalloped edges. Roll a rolling pin over the top of the pan to remove the excess dough. Fill with apples. Roll the remaining dough scraps, cut with a mini heart shaped cookie cutter (dip in flour if sticking to dough), and arrange on top of pie. Brush with a bit of soy milk and sprinkle with sugar, if desired. Bake at 350˚F for 35-40 minutes (if you notice the hearts starting to brown, put a piece of tin foil over top of them after about 25 minutes). Let cool for 10 minutes then serve. Can be refrigerated in an air tight container for up to two days. 

If you'd prefer to assemble the pie and save it for later, remove the pie from the freezer when ready to bake and let it thaw for about 20 minutes. Follow baking instructions above. Unbaked pie will keep frozen for up to 6 weeks in an air tight, freezer proof container.

Yield: 1 4" pie

35 comments:

  1. So cute! Only problem I see with this is that I would want one too!! Apple pie is my Tom's favorite, so I will definitely be making this in the future for him. I love the little hearts.

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  2. AnonymousMay 07, 2013

    This pie sounds and looks wonderful! Love that it's single serve!

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  3. Beautiful!! Yes--I agree with Taylor, only problem is that I would totally need to make one for myself, haha.

    Also, so intrigued why you dislike SLT?! I generally prefer it over W-S, because I find W-S is more of a rip off most of the time. But I agree, in this case, I can understand why!

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    1. AnonymousMay 10, 2013

      That's funny--I was thinking the same thing. I prefer WS over SLT, but find that on a general level, WS costs more than SLT. Either way, this pie needs to get in my belly.

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  4. This is darling! And that PIE! Good gosh. Pinning!

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  5. This looks heavenly!

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  6. This is an apple pie filled with love and that very idea makes me so happy.

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  7. I love apple pie and yours are so adorable! I love the little hearts on top!

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  8. Apple pie is my favorite and I just love hearts on top! What a cute piece of flare to go with an amazing recipe!

    Ergo - Blog

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  9. Mr. Thom just might be the luckiest man to walk this earth. This pie looks amazing and so darn cute! I don't have a Thom in my life right now, but I am tempted to make this for myself.

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  10. My husband is the same way! This apple pie looks awesome... looking forward to more in this series!

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  11. This pie is a beauty! So pretty! And soooo many apples :)

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  12. Excited about this series! My husband is the same way with treats - NO self control, eats everything immediately, then complains about his stomach... until another treat comes along and we repeat the cycle. This is beauty, beauty, beauty!

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  13. You are killing me with the sweetness. This series is too great and I love how devoted you are to making single serving treats for Thom. What a lucky man.

    XO, Linds

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  14. Gorgeous! So beautiful! I don't know if I would be able to make this for someone else... I'd probably eat it before I gave it as a present! :)

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  15. This looks so cute!!

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  16. Oh I love the idea with covering the cake with little hearts, that is really so sweet :) Thanks for sharing!
    Take care

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  17. this is adorable! and your photos are beautiful.

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  18. Oh Lady Cakes, I love you! A single serving pie. I can't WAIT to make it. And I can eat the whole thing!

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  19. Adorable and a half. Everyone needs single servings in their repertoire. I could totally benefit from single cookies!

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  20. "greedy asswads" - most excellent. Love this recipe & the sentiment. For Thom, with love, sounds like a darling concept.
    Heidi xo

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  21. I felt all sweet and sentimental about the series and appropriately finished with a laugh at your "greedy asswads" comment. So balanced. So much perfect.

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  22. Good lawd. Single serving pie? I love this! I so often have 1 or 2 apples and a hankering for pie!

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  23. Haha! My husband is EXACTLY the same. I would make cupcakes, cookies, almond joys, etc, and think that we would end up sharing with friends... but then he would EAT IT ALL. I spoiled him!

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  24. This is adorable!! I like the idea of making smaller batches. Especially when you run a blog, and you can't always find enough people to take all those biscuits and cakes off your hands, the temptation to eat it all by yourself is just too great.

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  25. AnonymousMay 08, 2013

    I am so looking forward to this series! My Tom (without the "h") has an insatiable sweet tooth - no self control. This pie is the perfect size for him!

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  26. New to your blog (through Saveur). I love the idea of these small batch recipes! I rarely bake since it's just my husband and me, and we don't want to be stuck eating a whole pie or batch of cookies. Problem solved!

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  27. So lovely. And yes! Small batch recipes! My husband is the same way, but sadly, I am too. :) I love this series.

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  28. AnonymousMay 09, 2013

    Last week, I made my guy 2 dozen cookies and then left for the weekend. When I returned, there was nary a crumb in sight. Absolutely no self control! When I teased him about his cookie binge, he responded "I don't think you understand Audge...I LOVE COOKIES!!!!"

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  29. Your new series is making all the single girls and boys jealous, Ashlae. This apple pie is so stinking cute!

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  30. Oh dear! My man is just like your Thom! Now that tart could be a great solution, but I don't think I can resist with just one ;)

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  31. Dude, you could make it to my heart with that pie. Swoon!

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  32. All hail your wonderful photography! What kind of post-processing do you do?

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  33. Small batch is also good for apartment dwellers like myself who could use a little portion control when it comes to sweets. Looking forward for more from this series!

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