Hand Pies
Description
This recipe is incredibly versatile. You can make hand pies with any fruit, and you can make savory ones too.
You can make these and freeze them raw, in case you have a bumper crop of some fruit, but can't eat that many hand pies in a short time. In that case, you should lower the baking temperature to 350 and bake a little longer. I always advise checking periodically, unless you're making a soufflé, which could collapse.
Ingredients
Instructions for Dough
Mix 2.5 cups flour with 2 sticks (1 cup) of cold salted butter in the Cuisinart. Vegan butter or coconut oil should work too, though the flavor might be slightly different. Mix until the butter chunks are the size of small peas. Drizzle in a mixture of ½ cup plain yogurt (vegan or dairy), ½ water, and 4 t lemon juice. Blend some more. The mixture will quickly become a big blob that tumbles around in your Cuisinart. It’s time to take it out, wrap it up in plastic foil or wax paper (not aluminum, as the lemon juice will corrode the aluminum foil!), and place in the fridge for a few hours. You can even do this the day before baking.
Make Your Filling
I use any fruit: apples, figs, plums, currants, rhubarb, gooseberries, blueberries or pears, to name just a few. Chop up your fruit, put it in a saucepan, and add ½ cup sugar (for rhubarb and gooseberries, use more). You can add spices. I like cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, but you can try other things too. Pears are good with nutmeg. Cook this mixture down for a while, until it becomes a bit jammy, and not runny. Turn off heat and add 1 tsp vanilla or almond essence. Sometimes I add extra vanilla. Now let it cool.
Assemble the Pies
Take your dough out of the fridge and roll it out to ⅛-¼ inch thick. Cut out circles. I use my canning funnel to determine the circle size and cut around that. The circles should be at least 6 inches in diameter. Heat your oven to 375F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Dab a big tablespoon of filling into the center of each circle, dab water around the edges of the dough, and fold the dough over, making a half circle. Quickly use a fork to press the edges together. This makes it look pretty too. Use a sharp knife to make little holes in the pie, to let hot gas escape. (At this point, you can freeze the pies.) Now mix an egg yolk with a Tablespoon of water, and brush this over each pie. Sprinkle on sugar, put the pies in the oven, and bake them. I check them after 20 minutes. When they’re looking slightly brown, golden, and crispy at the edges, they should be done.
Try making pies with a mixture of pears and blue cheese, or try making some with potatoes, peas, carrots, and spices (omit the sugar!). If using veggies like potatoes and carrots, boil them until almost done, before mixing them up to put in the pies. You could add grated cheese or Indian spices too. Try sauteing some onions and garlic and adding them to the mix. The possibilities are endless!
Note
In case you’re wondering why I don’t always give exact times or amounts, the answer is that I find ovens differ greatly. So often I’ve baked something the exact amount of time specified in a recipe (I’m close to sea level), only to find that it’s nowhere near done, or worse, it has burned up! Also, I find that amounts of spices, herbs, and sugar vary a lot according to taste. Some people like a lot of sugar, and others like hardly any. I recommend tasting things as you go, to see if you like the flavor.
