Maybe you were wondering if you can air fry apple pie? The answer is: yes you can! I'm so excited to share this Air Fryer Apple Pies recipe with you! It's completely made from scratch with a flaky and buttery pie crust filled with irresistibly juicy, soft, and sweet apples. These delicious air-fried apple pies are as easy as 1-2-3. If you're looking for a new way to enjoy this classic fall dessert, this blog post is for you!
If you prefer to use the oven, you can also find the instructions in this post! By the way, have you tried my Air Fryer Cheesecake?
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Details
- Texture - it just has it all. The flaky and buttery pie crust with the sweet, soft, and juicy apple filling is just mind-boggling.
- Easy - This recipe is easy to make and suitable for beginners.
- Baking - You can either make small individual apple pies or a full-size air fryer apple pie. I will also tell you how to bake it in the oven.
- Customization - I really recommend using homemade pie crust, but this recipe will work with store-bought pie crust as well. You can even just make the apple filling and top it with biscuits or use crescent rolls.
Best apples
I like to use tart apples for apple hand pies. Examples are Granny Smith (green) or Honeycrisp (yellow). These varieties of apples blend nicely with cinnamon. You can also use sweet apples like Gala or Golden Delicious for this mini apple pies recipe as the filling doesn't have a lot of sugar.
You have a ton of apples and don't know what to do with them? How about 15 different apple cakes?
How to make the crust without a food processor?
It's really easy to make the pie crust without a food processor. All you need is a pastry cutter or two forks. Start by mixing the flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Then add the butter and cut it into the mixture until it resembles a coarse meal with pea-sized flakes of butter. Then gradually add water until the texture starts to clump together. You can also make it by hand.
Why would I bake pie in an air fryer?
Let me tell you about the benefits of baking with an air fryer. An air fryer preheats much faster than an oven, and you can bake the pies at a lower temperature because the heat is better circulated and more concentrated in the small air fryer basket. This can save on your electricity bill as you don't have to run the oven on high heat for 1 hour (to preheat and bake the pies). Especially on warmer days, it is also practical that an air fryer does not heat the kitchen like a normal household oven.
Can I make it in the oven?
Yes, absolutely! Simply bake these mini pies at 375°F (191°C) for about 25-30 minutes until the crust is golden brown. If you use an oven, you can also make them in a cupcake pan. This recipe makes about 8 muffin-sized miniature apple pies.
Pan conversion
This recipe is enough for four mini apple pies baked in 1-cup ramekins or one 7-inch (18cm) small apple pie. If you would like to serve one large pie instead of 4 individual hand pies, bake it at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes and another 25 minutes at 325°F (160°C). Cover loosely with aluminum foil for the last 10 minutes to avoid heavy browning if necessary.
Top tips for success
- Make sure that the butter is very cold and don't overwork the crust. This is the key to a flaky texture.
- As you roll out the pie crust one at a time, keep the other pie crust pieces refrigerated. Otherwise, the crust will get too warm and make it difficult to roll out.
- To prevent the crust from getting soggy at the bottom, don't spoon the excess liquid from the apples into the crust.
- To remove the mini pies easily from the ramekins, cut circles out of parchment paper and cover the bottom. Then, before serving, run a knife around the sides and invert the ramekins. You can skip this if you want to serve them in the ramekins rather than on plates.
Photo tutorial (step-by-step)
Place the flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a food processor and pulse 4-5 times until pea-sized butter flakes are still visible.
Add one tablespoon of water at a time and pulse 1-2 times after every tablespoon. Stop adding water when the dough starts to clump together.
Transfer the crust onto a piece of plastic wrap, shape it into a disc, cover tightly with the plastic wrap, and refrigerate.
Tip: You can use this pie crust for making pop tarts!
Place the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Let sit until the apples start to release some juice.
In the meantime, on a lightly floured surface, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Then cut each piece into â…” and â…“ pieces so that you have 4 larger pieces of pie crust for the bottom of the ramekins and 4 smaller ones for the top of the 4 mini apple pies.
Roughly shape each piece into a round disc and roll out until the bottom pieces are big enough to cover the bottoms and sides of the ramekins with a little overhang and the top pieces also cover the tops of the baking forms with a slight overhang on the sides.
Fit the bottom pieces into the forms,
spoon the apple pie filling into the crust without any excess liquid, and place a few butter pieces on top.
Discard all of the excess liquid from the apple filling.
Then place the top pie crust pieces on top of the filling and seal and flute the edges. Cut a few slits in the top to allow the steam to escape while baking. Decorate the pie crust to your liking and brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
Then arrange in the air fryer basket and bake.
More air fryer recipes to try
If you like baking with an air fryer, make sure to try these recipes that I've specifically designed for the air fryer.
Recipe
Air Fryer Apple Pies Recipe: How to Air Fry Apple Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1 â…” cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cold
- 4-5 tablespoon water, cold
Apple Filling
- 4 cups thinly sliced apples (peeled), about 3-4 apples
- 6 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
Crust
- egg wash (1 large egg + 1 tablespoon of water)
- 2 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Place the flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a food processor and pulse 4-5 times until pea-sized butter flakes are still visible. Add one tablespoon of water at a time and pulse 1-2 times after every tablespoon. Stop adding water when the dough starts to clump together.
- Transfer the crust onto a piece of plastic wrap and shape it into a 1-inch (2.5cm) thick disc. Cover tightly with the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.Â
- Place the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Let sit for 15 minutes so that the apples start to release some juice.
- In the meantime, on a lightly floured surface, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Then cut each piece into â…” and â…“ pieces so that you have 4 larger pieces of pie crust for the bottom of the ramekins and 4 smaller ones for the top of the 4 mini apple pies.
- Roughly shape each piece into a round disc and roll out until the bottom pieces are big enough to cover the bottoms and sides of the ramekins with a little overhang and the top pieces also cover the tops of the baking forms with a slight overhang on the sides.
- Fit the bottom pieces into the forms, spoon the apple pie filling into the crust without any excess liquid, and place a few butter pieces on top. Then place the top pie crust pieces on top of the filling and seal and flute the edges. Cut a few slits in the top to allow the steam to escape while baking. Decorate the pie crust to your liking and brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 18 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 325°F (163°C) and bake for another 7 minutes. If you notice that it browns too quickly, you can cover the pies loosely with aluminum foil* for the last few minutes if necessary.Â
- Let cool at room temperature for 2 hours. Then place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 4 days. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired and enjoy!
Notes
Video
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Coleman heckart
well Savine, 85 year young american in Costa Rica for 21 years. Hobby I suppose is cooking. Just bought an Oster Air Fryer. Your information is very helpful. Beautiful summer day, we are in the dry season now. Many hungry friends here. Thinking about a Christmas lunch for everyone, but don't want to mess it up. Well if follow your excellent comments, no problem. Still reading studying eveyrthing about Air Fryers. First thing will be some of those smaller apple pie thingys. Professional photographer for over 50 years, Still shooting? Well when I get called and will do a large art gallery in January. Love shooting art. Enough of this, one of your staff will read this. Well, as the Beatles knew "You get Along with the Help of Your Friends". And so it is.
Sabine
Hey Coleman, I'm glad you find it helpful! Good luck with Christmas lunch and happy holidays!