Make the dough by placing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir with a whisk. Cut the butter into ½-inch chunks. Sprinkle over the dry ingredients and toss to coat. Using your fingers, press and smash the cubes into small flat bits, smaller than the classic apple pie. You want them almost (not quite) incorporated into the flour. Sprinkle ½ cup of milk into the bowl and stir with a fork until it starts to get shaggy. Sprinkle more milk, a tablespoon at a time, if the dough looks too dry. Once the dough starts to look shaggy, start to massage it with the palms of your hand to incorporate the dry ingredients.

Pat into a circle then cut into quarters. Then cut each quarter into 3 equal pieces. Roll into rounds. You should have 12 balls of dough. Cover with plastic wrap.

Make the filling by peeling, coring and chopping the apples into ¼ to ½-inch chunks. You want them pretty small. Heat the butter in a large skillet until melted, and add the apple chunks. Cook on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes until the apples just start to soften. Add the sugar, spices and salt to the apples and continue to cook for about 4 to 5 minutes or until the apples are soften and are on the verge of falling apart (but are still whole). The apple pieces will start to look a bit translucent. Set aside to cool.

Flour a clean surface then roll out 1 dough round into a 5-inch circle. Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon into the center of the dough circle. You might be tempted to add more. Don’t.

Beat the egg with the water to form an egg wash. Brush the edge of half the circle then fold over dry dough edge to close the pie, forming a half moon. Using a fork, press down all the way around the pie to seal it. Move to a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

Once the pies are made, place the sugar in a large bowl or baking pan. Pour the oil into a 12-inch wide saute pan with straight sides or a heavy dutch oven. Heat the oil to 350°F. Once it reaches that temperature, gently slide three or four pies in the hot oil (don’t drop it as it will splash up the hot oil and burn you). Fry for 1 to 3 minutes on each side, or until each side is a deep golden brown. Remove the pies and place immediately in the sugar, coating each side by spooning the sugar over each pie or turning the pies over in the sugar. Move to a wire rack placed on a rimmed baking sheet and repeat with the remaining pies.

If using the glaze instead of coating with sugar, cool the fried pies on a wire rack. Once the pies have cooled completely, make the glaze by melting the butter in a medium sized bowl in the microwave. Sift the confectioner’s sugar over the butter. This is important as powdered sugar clumps so don’t skip. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and milk. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Spoon or brush the glaze over the cooled pies and let the glaze dry before serving.