These delicious fruit hand pies are the perfect dessert for any meal or a convenient "on the go" treat. Enjoy these mini handheld pies warm or at room temperature.
For Debbie and Phil's Great 8 Renaissance Faire themed dinner last year, Lord and Lady Van Boom brought fruit hand pies with vanilla ice cream for dessert.
I was excited to make homemade hand pies. I used to work at a grocery market and once in awhile actually ate the hand pies we all remember stocked by the check out line.
Making your own assures you of all the ingredients included! Homemade is always better and more fun!
I thought I would challenge myself and make two different fruit pies. So, using two different shapes, we made mini berry pies and mini apple hand pies.
Although I think the pie crust recipe already posted on our blog is one of the best, I decided to try a different recipe for the hand pies.
Either recipe would work just Gr8! Store bought crust is also fine to use.
The sugar sprinkles really add color a some sweetness. These red mini fruit hand pies would be the perfect dessert for Christmas or Valentine's Day!
Apple Hand Pies are the perfect dessert! Add a cup of coffee or a tall glass of milk and that is all you need to end a meal!
And yes, why not eat dessert with your hands!
Make Ahead Instructions for the Freezer:
- Prepare the pies and lay each pie on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
- Place the baking sheet into the freezer until the hand pies are frozen (about 30 minutes).
- Then wrap each frozen pie in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer. Individual wrapped pies can be kept in a large plastic bag or container in the freezer.
- When ready to bake, unwrap a pie and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
- Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake at 375℉ for 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown.
(Edited since the last publication on January 10, 2016.)
Fruit Hand Pies
Ingredients
Hand Pie Crust (Makes enough for 12-14 mini hand pies. If you are making berry and apple pies, double the crust recipe.)
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 Tablespoon sour cream
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed
Berry Hand Pies (makes enough for 12 - 14 mini hand pies)
- ¾ cup fresh blackberries
- ¾ cup fresh raspberries
- 4 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon water, plus a bit more for sealing the dough
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- decorative sugar for sprinkling, optional
Apple Hand Pies (makes enough for 12 - 14 mini hand pies)
- 2 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced small
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon water, plus a bit more for sealing the dough
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- decorative sugar for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
Hand Pie Crust Directions:
- In a large mixing bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the flour, salt, and sugar.
- Add the butter pieces and pulse with the food processor on low until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few clumps of butter remaining.
- In a small measuring cup with a spout for pouring, combine the sour cream, lemon juice and ice water.
- Gradually add the sour cream mixture to the food processor and process just until combined.
- The mixture will be crumbly. Test by pinching a small amount of dough together to see if it holds. If it does not hold together, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap each disk in plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate the disks for 1 hour.
Berry Hand Pie Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- While the pie dough is chilling, combine the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl. Gently fold together until combined.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
- On a floured surface, roll out the pie dough to ⅛ inch thickness
- Cut out circles using any size cookie or biscuit cutter. (I use a 2 ¾" round biscuit cutter. For the apple hand pies, I cut around the edge of a bowl to get a larger circle.)
- Place the bottom circle of dough onto a baking pan covered with parchment paper or Silpat pad.
- Fill the center of this dough circle with the berry filling (~2 Tablespoons). The amount you can fit inside will depend on the size of your dough circle and the size of your berries (sometimes the berries need to be cut in half if too large). Be sure to leave a border around the filling. If using a large circle, place the fruit on one side of the dough leaving the other side available to fold over.
- Brush water on the edges of the dough circles.
- Place the second dough circle atop each filled circle or if using a large circle shape, fold over the filling.
- Use a fork to crimp the edges together, sealing each pie.
- Re-roll the scraps and continue cutting out the circles until you run out of dough.
- Cut a small slit in the top of each pie.
- Prepare your egg wash by whisking together the egg with the Tablespoon of water.
- Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash.
- Sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake 13 – 15 minutes until the pies are just beginning to turn golden brown.
- Remove the pies from the oven and allow them to rest for 10 minutes before serving.°
- Store in airtight container at room temperature.
Apple Hand Pie Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar and flour. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
- Follow Berry Hand Pie Directions above, #2 through #18.
Notes
- Prepare the pies through step #12 above and lay each pie on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
- Place the baking sheet into the freezer until the hand pies are frozen (about 30 minutes).
- Then wrap each frozen pie in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer until ready to bake.
- When ready to bake, unwrap the pie and place on a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Starting with instruction #13 above, continue with the egg wash.
- Increase the bake time to 25 - 35 minutes at 375℉ or until golden brown.
Brenda Perlin
This one is special. Everything on this blog looks great but this one is driving me crazy. A must have recipe!!!! Thank you.