Easy Apple Pie Beggars Purses

There has been an extra can of apple pie mixture in my pantry for a while now. It has been there since I used one of them for my Easy Fried Apple Pies. It has been haunting me. Other than picking up another can and making an apple pie (as I have a deep dish frozen crust in the freezer to use also) I have been unable to come up with an idea. Until now.

One thing that has always intrigued me was what professional chefs call "beggars purses". They are some type of pastry or other dough filled appetizer, generally savory and often tied neatly with long strands of chives. And of course if done by a professional, look amazing and appetizing when complete and plated. Although I have never had the distinct pleasure of trying one, the photographs I have seen have me believing I would love them.

With that in mind I hoped I could create a dessert beggars purse using the canned apple mixture. And it seemed that I was successful. I only made enough crust as you would for a one crust pie and there's lots more filling to use, so make enough crust like you would for a two crust pie as below.

Extra items you'll need :

• brush for egg washing
• muffin tin for baking in
• rolling pin (of course)
• 4 1/2 inch round cutter (I used a small bowl that measured 4 1/2 inches side to side.)
• cooking spray

For the crust, filling and topping:

• 3 cups flour + extra when rolling
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. granulated white sugar (optional)
• 2 stick very cold butter
• 1/4 cup ice cold water (maybe more)
• 1 can apple pie filling
• cinnamon sugar mixture
• 1 egg and 1 tsp. water for egg wash

1. Make the pie crust by pulsing in a food processor the flour, salt and sugar if using.
2. Add in chunks of really, really cold butter. Pulse until pea like.
3. Pour a bit of water in and pulse, doing this a little at a time until the dough starts to form where you know it will come together.
4. Gather the dough from the food processor and place on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Fold the wrap over the dough and form a ball and using the plastic wrap press down to form a flat disc. Do two discs if you've doubled the pie dough.
5. Rest in the refrigerator for twenty minutes. While the dough is resting make your cinnamon sugar mixture and the egg wash. Get everything ready to roll the dough and a regular size muffin tin to bake these in.
6. Open the apple pie filling. The filling is in slices so I took a long filet knife and in a criss-cross pattern cut the apples into smaller pieces. 
7. Roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch. Cut out the circles and re-roll as necessary to finish cutting out all the circles you can. I actually rolled my initial circles out a bit more after cutting them out, to about 3/16 inch thickness. If using a bowl as I did for cutting, press down and wiggle to get the circle cut and if necessary remove some dough around the bowl. Pop them out by shaking a little.
8. Egg wash around all the edges. I used a soup spoon to grab filling and place in the center of the circle of dough. This is about a tablespoon or so of filling.
9. Next gather the top and bottom crust and pinch together. Then grab either side of the dough up and pinch together.
10. Egg wash the exterior and pinch to close that little bump of dough together. Place each one in a muffin tin compartment that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
11. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
12. Baked in a preheated 350° oven for about 35 minutes until golden brown.

 

Add the filling to the middle and egg wash:

Crimp them and place in sprayed muffin tin cups:

Completely crimp to seal, egg wash then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar:

As I said earlier I made ten easy apple pie beggars purses and it cost me $4.47 at .44¢ each. They are tons of fun to make on days when you have some time and relish being in your kitchen as I did today.