These lovelies were a hit at our Christmas party! In my opinion, they should have been because they were a lot of work! I enjoyed every minute of it because it was a baking adventure for me. I had not made hand pies before Thanksgiving week and was still in the process of figuring it out. I have made larger fried pies (my family's southern tradition) and those are fantastic but these pies are baked, not fried.
I have listed the recipes below. At the bottom, I have listed helpful tips for assembly!
The two kinds of hand pies I made:
Pecan chocolate chip
Salted caramel apple
I took liberties with both recipes and was determined to be flexible because working with pie crust to make individual desserts, requires that mentality or you'll become frustrated.
Pecan chocolate chip (original recipe)
The cool thing about these, is I added chocolate chips on a whim and I thought it added an extra layer of sweetness that was perfect. I used about 1/2 C of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
You are going to pre-make & bake the filling, before putting it into your dough.
I estimate this will make about 16 hand pies (@ 4-5" across in size). It truly depends on how large you make themz
5 T butter
1 C dark corn syrup
1 C packed brown sugar (light or dark will work)
1 C chopped pecans
4 large eggs
1 t white vinegar
1/4 t vanilla extract
1 pinch of kosher salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare an 8" square cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Brown butter in a small skillet (butter will start smelling nutty & have a chestnut brown color to it.
Whisk all ingredients together, including e browned butter together. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the filling has thickened.
Remove the pan from overn and pour filling into a clean bowl. Place bowl in the refrigerator and chill for at least an hour.
Once the filling is chilled, prepare your pies. See tips below for preparing the pies.
Salted Caramel Apple (original recipe)
The original recipe (here) tells us to use store bought caramel squares. I have a favorite salted caramel sauce that I like to make, so I used that instead.
This recipe will fill about 12-16 hand pies, estimating the same size as the pecan. Again, it all depends on how big you cut then.
For the filling:
2 C of peeled, small diced apples
2 t lemon juice
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 C sugar
2 t all-purpose sugar
Mix all ingredients together, then prepare your pies.
Once your caramel apple pies are baked and slightly cooled, get a spoon and scoop the salted caramel onto the pies. You can use as much or as little as you want. I also like to sprinkle on a little more sea salt on top of the caramel.
Salted caramel sauce (original recipe)
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C water
1/2 C heavy whipping cream
3 1/2 T butter
1/2 t sea salt or kosher salt
Mix water & sugar in a medium size pan (too small of a pan could cause your sugar to over cook, I know this from experience...one day, I had to make this 3 times!).
Stir sugar & water over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium. Swirl the pan frequently, don't stir, as you wait for the mixture to turn a deep amber color.
Once the mixture turns amber, mix in your whipping cream. The mixture will bubble vigorously but this is part of the magic! Stir over low heat until the caramel bits dissolve. Remove from heat, then add in the butter & salt.
Cool and then transfer to a container. You can make this ahead and it will last about 1 week. I freeze any leftovers I have (it's too delicious to throw away) & it thaws beautifully. You can actually scoop it directly out with a spoon without thawing.
This sauce mixes into buttercream icing perfectly & it also makes a delightful topping for ice cream. Yum yum yum! You can tell I LOVE this sauce.
Tips on making the pies:
Crust: I like making homemade crusts for pies typically but for recipes that are already quite labor intense, like this once, I decide to skip it and go for the store bought crust. I prefer the type of crust you buy in the frozen department. They taste closer to a real crust to me vs the ones in the refrigerated dairy section.
I used 2 frozen pie crusts to make each recipe.
Working with crust: leave your crust out at room temperature for about 8-10 minutes until it is workable temperature. I turn my crust out of the pan onto a floured surface. Get your rolling pin ready with some flour as well and start rolling your dough.
Thickness of crust:
for the round pies I rolled mine out until about 1/8" thick. Then I used a biscuit cutter to cut all of my crusts out (you'll need 2 for the round pies). Once you have them cut, you're going to roll them out a little more until they're wide enough to hold filling.
For the half moon pies, roll it out to about 1/4" thick because although you don't want the crust to be too thin after you roll them out again (mine were almost too thin & started to tear when I put them together). Cut out circles with a large round biscuit cutter.
Making the pies:
Prepare an egg wash - one egg lightly beaten and get your pastry brush out
For the round pies: put about one tablespoon of filling in the middle. Brush pastry with egg wash. Then top the pie with the 2nd crust. Use a dinner fork (long prongs), to press the dough together to create the seal. Using a sharp knife, cut three dashes into the top dough, to create air vents for ths steam as the pies bake.
For the half moon pies: roll the dough rounds out until they're around 1/8" thickness. Place a generous tablespoon of filling on one side, leaving room for the crust to close/be crimped. Brush the edges with egg wash. Fold other dough side over the filling & again, crimp the edges we a fork. Cut a couple of dashes in the top of the dough to create vents for baking.
Have fun we your pies and if they don't look perfect, don't worry, they'll still look gorgeously homemade and taste amazing!
Bake @ 20 - 30 minutes. The reason I am listed a wide range of time, is the amount of time it takes to bake the pies will depend on the thickness of your dough. Just watch them closely, as you don't want them to burn, after all of your hard work to make them.
Some of my "in-the-process" pics of the salted caramel pies:
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