Fried Pie-Tons

I am completely blaming the hubby for this one.  This was another late night impulse control challenge.  I was telling him how I'd been thinking about hand held apple pies.  He decided that this was a great idea but they should be shaped like won tons and then fried.  He dubbed them "pie-tons."

On a side note, I have a t-shirt that says "even the bad ideas are bigger in Texas." It is, naturally, referring to the bad ideas that disguise themselves as good ideas.  They're fun or tempting in some way.  This is one of those.  Haha.  It seemed like such a great idea.  Just make some pie dough (which I've never done from scratch before), bake up some apples, plop them down on the dough, seal them up and fry!  Bingo, done.  Right?  No.  Don't get me wrong, they tasted GREAT, but they were a pain.

I chopped up two jazz apples and a giant fuji.  I dropped those into an 8x8 dish then sprinkled them with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, a few toffee chips and a little flour.  I added some lemon juice and stirred it all up using the messy hands method.  Finally I topped all that with some butter and put the dish into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  These tasted amazing!  Way to wing it me!
 

I had to search through several pie dough recipes before I could find one for which I had all the stuff.  Oh, I've gone shopping now and I have plenty of ingredients for impulsive treats.  I found a recipe that was simple enough.  Sadly I read two days later that if I cut the fat down too small my crust will not be as smooth.  That would have been really helpful info before hand.  Oh well, I know now.  It rolled out kinda ok at first but as the flour started to vanish from my rolling pin it started sticking more and more.  

Once the oil was hot a little spoonful of apple went into each square of dough, which I'd cut with a pizza wheel.  They fried up easily enough.  Since I'd already baked the apples I didn't have to worry about them cooking in the oil, this step was just to cook the dough.  I watched them attentively.  So attentively in fact that I didn't notice hubby sneaking with the camera.  This was late, like 11:45pm, so please forgive the fact that I look like I'm ready for bed .... because I was.  

When they were all done I plated them for picture time and then served them up.  I will be the first to admit that they are ugly as sin.  To me they kinda look like some sort of poisonous sea creature waiting to attack.  The crust wasn't ideal.  I need to work the fat in less and either use a dough that's meant to be fried or bake them.  I vote for baking because the grease made them heavy, too heavy really.  Their saving grace was the flavor.  They tasted like delightful little pies.  We each had two and each pie-ton was 2 or 3 bites.  They were so good, I could have eaten more but all that grease convinced me to stop early!

Tomorrow night my sister and I are making a good comfort food dinner.  Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes (I make the BEST mashed potatoes on earth), green peas and an apple, walnut pie .... BAKED.  Making these little bundles of grease and yum made me want a "real" apple pie.  Since I haven't made the hubby a pie yet this year I figured this was as good a time as any.  We'll post pics for your entertainment.  Until then, enjoy pie-tons.