Mini Apple Pies Made With 3D Printed Lattice Cutter
Introduction: Mini Apple Pies Made With 3D Printed Lattice Cutter
Miniature, individual apple pies are great for casual gatherings, they don't require plates and forks and keep the clean up to minimum. Made with sweet pastry and filled with caramel sauce and small, cinnamon infused apple pieces.
I made 3D printed pastry cutters to speed the process and keep the pies looking neat and even. It's a perfect solution for people who don't want to spend ages creating traditional lattice on each miniature pie, also great for people who have to make large quantities of small pies, this methods saves a lot of time and sanity, as well as people who own 3D printers, because let's be honest - if you have a 3D printer you don't need much incentive to fire it up and make something useful.
Supplies
FOR 10 PIES:
1. PASTRY:
2. 250G ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
3. 125G UNSALTED BUTTER
4. 60G CASTER SUGAR
5. 1 SMALL EGG
6. 1TBS MILK
7. PINCH OF SALT AND 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
* FILLING:
* 600-700G CRISP APPLES
* 70G CASTER SUGAR
* 2TBS BUTTER
* 1-2 TSP CINNAMON
1. CARAMEL:
2. 763
100G CASTER SUGAR
3. 35G UNSALTED BUTTER
4. 90ML CREAM
5. 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT, PINCH OF SALT
* PASTRY EGG WASH:
* 1 SMALL EGG
* SPLASH OF MILK
Step 1: STL FILES
1) (RED) BOTTOM CUTTER, 85MM DIAMETER
2) (YELLOW) LATTICE CUTTER, 95MM DIAMETER
3) (GREEN) COOKIE PRESS
4) (BLUE) COOKIE PRESS HANDLE
Bottom cutter has a second circle cutter inside, it won't cut through pastry, but it will leave a shallow indentation to show how much filling should go in.
Lattice cutter I made is just your traditional square pattern, but that's just basic. You can always make your own lattice cutter with different patterns. Try circles, hearts, flower patterns, geometrical shapes...there are countless possibilities. Notice that the top cutter is larger than the bottom one.
All walls in cutters have to be 0.6mm thick, so they can be printed in one single wall. Print in 0.2 layer height, 10% infill, enable retraction to prevent stringing.
Step 2: CARAMEL
Combine sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan, cook on medium for 6-8 minutes, stir occasionally.
You will know it's ready when caramel thickens and changes colour to light brown. Add vanilla extract and a pinch of salt once it's thickened.
Leave it to cool down to room temperature.
You want caramel to be soft and spreadable.
Step 3: APPLE FILLING
Peel and cut apples into small, 1/4 inch cubes.
Combine sugar and butter in a saucepan, cook on medium for about 5 min until caramel changes colour to light brown.
Add apples to the saucepan, sprinkle with cinnamon.
Cook on medium heat for 10-15min, stirring occasionally until filling reduces in volume, apples turn light brown and most of the liquid is reduced.
Leave it to cool down.
Step 4: PASTRY
Put flour, sugar, salt and cold, cubed butter into a food processor, pulse until mixture resembles wet sand.
Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and a splash of milk together, keep the food processor running and slowly pour the mixture through a feed hole. Mix for 30 seconds and turn off.
Tip the dough onto floured surface and quickly knead the pastry until it all comes together. Shape into a flattened disc, cover in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Step 5: PUFF PASTRY VERSUS SHORTCRUST PASTRY
In case anyone was curious how this recipe looks like with store bought pastry.
In both pictures on the left we have puff pastry, on the right we have shortcrust pastry.
Not much of a difference visually, both rise a little bit, but not enough to distort the pattern.
Puff pastry is not as sweet as home-made shortcrust pastry, so I prefer to use it with sweeter apple varieties. I only ever use sweet shortcrust with crisp apples to balance the flavours. 763