Individual strawberry hand pies are so satisfying and easy to eat! A luscious strawberry filling is surrounded by a buttery, flaky pie crust. No utensils needed!
I’m so excited that this month’s What’s Baking theme is Baking With Fresh Fruit! Our host for this month is Jaida from Sweet Beginnings. Jaida also happens to manage and organize our What’s Baking group, so a big thank you to Jaida for running our group!
My family and I eat pounds and pounds of strawberries every week. In fact, we love strawberries so much that we recently went strawberry picking (although sadly, I didn’t come home with many since most of the fields had been picked over already). I contemplated baking a strawberry pie for this month’s recipe but wanted to make something that would be easily devoured with one hand. Plus, since I was lazy and didn’t want to dirty any serving plates or utensils, my recipe needed to be easy to serve and clean up. Enter these strawberry hand pies.
I thought the photos were fun since the pies look like they are bleeding. Maybe these could be a fun Halloween treat one year? The crusts were flaky and buttery and did not leave a huge trail of crumbs after taking a bite. My husband’s only complaint was that they didn’t have enough filling. I told you – we love strawberries around here!
I’m glad this recipe only made 6 hand pies because I gave away half of them to our neighbor. Had I kept them, I would have eaten them all on my own. Just make sure you fill these up with lots of strawberries so you get a good crust-to-filling ratio.
Strawberry hand pies
Ingredients
Pie dough
- 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter cut in pieces
- 1/8 to 1/4 cup ice water
- 1 egg for egg wash
- Coarse sanding sugar for sprinkling optional
Filling
- 1 and 1/2 cups strawberries hulled and cut in half or quarters, depending on size
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- All-purpose flour for work surface
Instructions
Make the dough
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and sugar to combine. Add the butter, and pulse in short bursts until the mixture resembles wet sand. Keep the food processor running and slowly add the ice water in a slow, constant stream until the dough comes together. Do not overmix or else it will heat the butter too much.
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Flatten into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
Make the filling
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the strawberries, sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.
Assemble the pies
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator. Roll it out so it is about 1/8-inch thick. Cut out circles about 5 inches in circumference (you can use a round cutter, bowl or any other round object). Transfer the dough rounds to your prepared baking sheet and make sure to space them out.
- Put about 2 Tablespoons of the filling onto one side of the circle. Fold the un-filled side over to form a half circle or moon shape. Gently press down on the edges to ensure that the pie is completely sealed. Use a fork to crimp the sides.
- Brush each pie with egg and make slits in the tops of each pie with a paring knife. Sprinkle with sanding/coarse sugar if desired.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow pies to cool slightly before serving.
Notes