Strawberry Hand Pies
Today is my husband’s birthday (happy birthday, honey!), and he is a pie guy. He’d much rather have pie than cake, most of the time. Conveniently, it’s also Pie Party day!
I love making small pies, especially strawberry – I love the flavor of the cooked, jammy strawberries, I love that everyone gets more crust, and I love that I don’t have to try to get the slices to hold together!
We just got back from camp yesterday, and I was running short on time and energy (camp is SO fun and SO exhausting), so I used store-bought crusts. I used one Pillsbury and one from Grand Central Bakery here in Seattle, and the Grand Central ones held up MUCH better than the Pillsbury ones – I know which I’ll keep in my freezer from now on!
I got this fun little mini-pie maker a couple of months ago. It’s supposed to make the pies round, with the filling area star-shaped, but the star shaping gets lost in the baking process. I don’t really care – it’s still pretty fun and easy to use. It has a cookie-cutter side to cut the dough, and is hinged to press the crust pieces together with the filling inside.
Strawberry Hand Pies
from Martha Stewart
Makes 8-10 pies
Ingredients:
- roughly 3 cups strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered, depending on the size of the strawberry
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
- Pre-made pie crusts for 2 double-crust pies (4 rounds of store-bought crust)
- 1 egg
- water
- sanding sugar (optional; can also use granulated sugar)
- Preheat the oven to 425°. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.
- Stir together the strawberries, sugar, and corn starch in a medium bowl. Let sit while you prepare the crusts.
- Cut an even number of 5-inch rounds from the crusts.
- Put about 2 Tablespoons of filling in the middle of half of the rounds.
- Brush the edges of the filled rounds with egg wash.
- Top each filled round with another unfilled round. Press and crimp the edges to seal. Place the pies on the prepared cookie sheets.
- Cut a vent in each round.
- Brush each pie with more egg wash, and sprinkle with the sanding sugar.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
- Keeps in sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 days.