Recipe & Video
Hand Pies
Yield: about 9
Flaky pastry filled with your favorite jam or pie filling
Ingredients
for the pastry
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 3/4 cups butter, very cold
- Cold water
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
for the filling
- 4 oz cream cheese (1/2 brick) (room temperature)
- 6 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4-1 cup jam of your choice or pie filling (e.g., Nutella, pie filling, etc)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp milk or water
- coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
make the pastry
- Line baking pan with parchment or a silicon baking mat for easier clean up. Set aside
- Either grate your frozen butter on the large side of a box grater or cut into very small cubes and hold in the refrigerator or freezer.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt until well mixed.
- Add cold butter and toss with flour. Using breaking down pieces of butter until your mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
- Add ½ cup cold water and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar. Mix with a wooden spoon or your hand until a rough dough is formed. Add additional water as need, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you have few to no dry bits of dough.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured counter and knead briefly just until a cohesive dough is formed. Flatten into a rectangle and fold. Repeat fold 2 more times.
- Flatten into a disk about 1 ½ inch thickness, wrap with plastic and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
make the filling
- Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Fill a piping bag or Ziploc bag with mixture.
assemble the handpies
- After dough as chilled, dust work surface with flour and roll one disk of dough to about 1/8-1/4 inch thickness, taking care to lift the dough and redust underneath to prevent sticking. Always roll from the middle out to the edge, stopping right before the edge.
- Use a cutter to cut out desired shapes, taking care to make sure you have a matching top & bottom unless you will fold your hand pies like empanadas.
- Snip a ¼ opening in the piping back, pipe a board with the cream cheese filling, ¼ away from the edge of the pastry. Fill with 1-2 tsp of jam or other filling depending on the size of your pie. Lightly wet your finger and use it to moisten the edge of the pastry, outside of the filling. Top with a matching cut piece of pastry, making sure that the floured side is up. Press down and seal using a fork. Place on baking tray.
- Repeat until tray is full.
- For best results, freeze or chill for 15-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350F.
- Make egg wash by beating 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon of milk well. Using a pastry brush to egg wash tops of handpies. Top with coarse sugar if desired. Cut vents in top pastry. Bake until golden brown, 30-35 minutes.
