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)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Stir together the strawberries, sugar, and corn starch in a medium bowl.  Let sit while you prepare the crusts.
3. Cut an even number of 5-inch rounds from the crusts.
4. Put about 2 Tablespoons of filling in the middle of half of the rounds.
5. Brush the edges of the filled rounds with egg wash.
6. Top each filled round with another unfilled round.  Press and crimp the edges to seal.  Place the pies on the prepared cookie sheets.
7. Cut a vent in each round.
8. Brush each pie with more egg wash, and sprinkle with the sanding sugar.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
10. Keeps in sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 days.