Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Hand Pies


Updated October 2019

I just love making these little hand pies, not only because they are easy, but also very tasty! The size is just perfect for a light dessert, or snacking on any time.  Use whatever pie filling you like and make them your own.



RECIPE
Ingredients
Crust:
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup shortening or leaf lard
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp ice cold water
Filling:
Apple Pie Filling
Caramel Apple Jam
Blueberry Pie Filling
Cherry Pie Filling
Strawberry Pie Filling
Any pie filling will do, but making your own is so much tastier.

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

For the Crust:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour and salt together. Add shortening and cut in with fork or pasty blender until it resembles course crumbs. Add ice-cold water and stir until well combined, being careful not to over-work dough.

Place the dough on a lightly flour a board and using a rolling pin dusted with flour, roll it out in to a large circle. You want the pie crust to be thin.

Using a 5-inch round cutter, cut out circles, re-rolling dough once to get 8 total circles.

For the Filling:
Put 1 tbsp of pie filling a little off-center in each round. Using a small pasty brush, spread a little bit of water all around the edges of the pie crust. Fold top over to meet bottom, so you have a half-circle shape.

Using the tines of a fork, dusted in flour, crimp the edges together well all the way around where the top and bottom of the dough meet.

Cut slits in the top with a sharp knife, and place on a large baking sheet. Repeat with each circle.

Bake 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and continue baking 5 more minutes.

Remove baking sheet from oven, remove hand pies from baking sheet and let cool on a cooling rack. Dust tops of hand pies with sugar if desired.

Yield:  8 Hand Pies

Cooks note - hand pies freeze very well so make a batch for the freezer.

Enjoy,

Mary

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