Mini apple pies, Thanksgiving desserts, apple pie, Thanksgiving pie, fall deserts, cinnamon crumble

I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving, it feels like yesterday was Halloween. Did it creep up on anyone else? As far as holidays go, Thanksgiving is second only to Christmas. We have family dinners to prepare for (or maybe need something to take to an upcoming Friendsgiving or work party), and I have a couple recipes to share for the occasion!

Mini Apple Pies + Cinnamon Crumble

I absolutely love pie. And I mean if there’s one day you can stuff yourself as much as you’d like without being looked at funny, it’s got to be Thanksgiving. But if you want to make your guilty pleasure feel a little less guilty, just make it mini right? Go ahead and go back for seconds though—if there’s any left.

- filling -

First things first, set your oven to 425° and oil up a muffin pan. If you have a non-stick spray, that’s probably the easiest but I just dripped some oil into each muffin slot and spread it around with a napkin. This is really important so that you can actually get your mini pies out once they’re baked and cooled.

After you get all your ingredients together, start off by peeling and slicing your apples. You’ll make the filling first, so whisk the flour & water together and pour them into a pot over the stove, then add in all your spices & apples.

- crust -

While your filling is heating and your apples are are softening, roll out your dough. You can use whatever recipe for pie crust you like best or just buy the pre-made dough. I opted for the second—let’s keep it easy right?

You can cut your dough into mini crusts using a cookie cutter or a cup. My cookie cutter was a little small so I ended up having to roll the dough out a little after I cut it out so that it would fill the muffin tin.

- topping -

Once all your prep work for the filling is done, all you have left to do is fill each of the cups and mix your flour, cinnamon and melted butter together to make the crumble topping. Sprinkle the crumble on top of each of the filled cups. Careful to not fill your pies up too much or they’ll spill out onto the pan once they start baking!

Pop your mini pies into the oven to bake them and get your ice cream and milk ready! (I enjoyed mine with a scoop of Halo Top Gingerbread House ice cream and a glass of almond milk.) I know these mini pies are technically single servings, but I won’t judge if you indulge in more…

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies + Cream Cheese Frosting

I feel like I’ve seen so many variations of pumpkin sugar cookies floating around, so I thought I’d try my hand at some of my own. I added some of your favorite fall flavors into this sugar cookie recipe that you can make with or without the frosting.

- cookie dough -

For this one, I’d start with browning your butter because that’ll need to chill in the fridge or freezer for about 30 min before you can start working with it. Once you’ve got that going, you can start mixing your dry ingredients together. Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 350°.

If you don’t have all the different spices, you can substitute them for pumpkin spice. I like to mix everything individually so I can play with different flavors a little more but I know spices can be expensive, and if you don’t bake that often, it’s probably more convenient to get the pre-mixed pumpkin spice. Also, a quick little note, these cookies get even better tasting the next day as the spices develop, so if the flavors are a little mild right out of the oven, just you wait!

How satisfying is it when the powders and other ingredients you pour into your bowl finally start looking like dough??

Make sure to give your cookies enough room to grow as they bake! These sugar cookies don’t expand too much, so once you flatten them you can kind of get an eye for whether or not you’ve spaced them out enough.

I picked up this nifty trick from another blog I found on Pinterest (I can’t quite remember which one) but it’s an easy way to flatten out your cookies before baking and gives them a dusting of sugar on top. I poured some oil into a shallow dish and dipped the bottom of my cup into the oil (you could also spray with non-stick) and then dipped the cup into a small bowl of sugar. You’ll have to re-coat with oil occasionally as you go.

- frosting -

Don’t forget about that browned butter you set aside in the fridge. While your cookies are baking, you can whip up the frosting. Make sure you let your cookies cool enough when you pull them out otherwise the frosting will slide right off. If you really can’t wait, dip your cookie in the frosting, or try one without—you have to taste test right?

Here are the full recipes to both: