Fall Hand Pies
My favorite season is here, so the baking has begun! This week we went to an amish bakery and the smells inspired me to make some little hand pies. I had never tried it before, but they turned out okay. As always, you don’t have to read the whole article to find the recipe! Here it is:
PIE CRUST:
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
This will be cut into cubes and chilled
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Roughly 9 tablespoons of cold water
Instructions:
Chop/Pulse the butter, flour, and salt in a food processor until the mixture resembles powder (no pieces larger than 1/4 in/ pea size.
Add one tablespoon of cold water at a time to the food processor, pulsing after each addition. Again it should take around 9 tablespoons, but essentially you want it to start pulling from the sides and forming a clump of dough..
Put the dough on a work surface and work it into a big lump using your hands. After it forms a ball like figure, cut it in half (one will be used for the bottom of the pies and the other for the top).
Optional: Ideally, you want the dough to chill so leaving it in the fridge for a few hours/days is good. I actually just stuck it in for a few minutes (as I had really chilled the butter) and used it much quicker.
Put flour out on your work surface and roll out the ball of dough from the center moving outward. Find a cookie cutter or a cup/bowl to cut out circles in the dough. Cut out a circle, and then place it in the muffin tins for the “bottom” of the pies. Continue this until the dough runs out.
Divide the dough in half to save part of it for the top of the pies.
Cut out round bases.
You can use a cup or circle cookie cutter to cut out the round base for the little pies. If the little circle isn’t long enough, stretch it out to fill the pan.
Decorate the top of the pies
To decorate the top of the pies you can decide what of pattern you want to make. To do a lattice pattern, you will cut out little strips and weave them back and forth. You can also use braids to decorate them. I used pampered chef
FILLING:
Ingredients:
7 cups frozen berries. (I used the store bough blackberry, strawberry, raspberry mix)
1 cup granulated sugar (and a little for the tops of the pies)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 Tablespoons butter
Instructions:
Add berries, sugar and lemon juice to a large saucepan over medium heat.
Simmer all of the ingredients for about 5-10 minutes, gently stirring occasionally.
(You are able to taste it, and if you want it a little more sweet just add some sugar.!)
As the berries are simmering, slowly pour in the cornstarch. Gently stir mixture (being careful not to mash the berries), until thickened, about 2-5 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shells.
Add lattice top designed tops to pies (make sure to leave space/slots for steam to escape).
Brush a thin layer of beaten egg white over the top of the pie and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
If you are doing hand pies, Bake at 400 degrees F for 25-35 minutes. Check it after about 20 minutes and place a piece of tinfoil over it if the top crust is getting too brown.
Remove to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool for several hours.
I hope that you can make some fun little pies and enjoy decorating them like I did! Again, my recipe is based off of Taste Better than Scratch’s pie recipe. I just think fall baking is so fun and really sets the mood!
