Kicked Up Old Timey Applejacks

So I recently attended the GCLS Annual Literary Conference (and had a blast!). The participants (led by Karin Kallmaker) so very, very kindly donated their lunchtime apples to me:

After almost 24 hours on th dehydrater, eight of those apples now looked like this:

Time to make the Applejacks, a pocket sized hot apple pie. Mcdonald’s aint got nothing on this, though. We used as a starting place a recipe from Vivian Howard. My friend, Jeanine Hoffman, had left me some hard apple cider so we used that and it made something already good, awesome. and, as it takes a bit more than an hour to cook down, most of the alcohol had burned off by the time they had been softened, assembled and fried.

For the filing:

2 cups dried apples slices, roughly chopped (or torn)
2 cups apple cider (we used hard cider)
2 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice

For the dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup shortening (we used butter flavored)
2/3 cup hot water

For frying:

2 cups shortening
cinnamon sugar for dusting

Make the filling:

In a large saucepan, combine all the filling ingredients and bring to a boil. Cook until the apples have absorbed all the liquid, about an hour. Transfer the apple filling to the refrigerator to cool while making the dough.

Make the dough:

Put the shortening in the middle of the flour and pour in the hot water. Using your hands, work the shortening and water together until it is sludgy. Work the flour into the sludge until it comes together and a soft, tender dough forms.

Make the pocket pies:

Pinch off a golf ball sized piece of dough and, on a well floured surface, roll out the dough into fairly thin rounds. Trim the dough for a more professional look or leave rough for a more handmade appearance. Put 1 to 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center, fold over and crimp the edges with a fork. Set on a floured baking sheet until ready to fry.

Fry and serve:

Heat half the shortening in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, lay a single layer of applejacks in the pan and fry until golden on one side. Flip and fry the other side. It will take several batches to fry them all and you will probably end up using all of the shortening.

Once the applejacks are golden on both sides, drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Delicious!