Strawberry Hand Pies
For today’s recipe I wanted to do something I’d never done before. I have had these hand pies bookmarked for quite some time now and decided to make the strawberry version since we have all these strawberries on hand.
After reading a bunch of the comments about the recipe for the pastry dough, it sounded like it was a pain to deal with. And since it’s been hot here in Boston, I didn’t want to deal with the repeated chilling of the dough.
I started to think about another dough recipe. I debated just using my go-to pie crust recipe… Then I remembered the Good Eats episode “A Pie in Every Pocket”. Alton Brown made handpies (and even used the same dough to make homemade pop-tarts!) Once I found Alton’s recipe and read the reviews it looked like this dough would be easier to work with.
I had a lot of fun making a big mess in the kitchen the night I made these. The pastry dough is VERY easy to work with. And quite tasty. After the hand pies cooled, I popped them in the freezer. Hubby and I have been eating them for breakfast. Popping them in the toaster oven at work does the trick for reheating them.
One Year Ago: Corn Tomato and Avocado Salad
Check out my SECOND week of Strawberry Recipes HERE
Strawberry Hand Pies
Yield: ~20
Ingredients:
For the Pastry Dough
9 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 2 cups
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 ounces shortening, approximately 6 tablespoons
3/4 cup milk
1 egg mixed with 1 to 2 teaspoons water
For the Filling
2 pounds of strawberries (~4 cups, chopped)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Make the Filling
Hull and cut strawberries into small pieces. Mix them with the flour, sugar and pinch of salt, and add vanilla.
Make the Pastry Dough
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse for a few seconds and then pour into a large mixing bowl.
Add the shortening and knead it into the flour with your hands until it is crumbly.
Add the milk all at once and mix in with a spatula until it begins to come together.
Lightly flour your hands and the countertop and turn the dough out onto the countertop. Knead the dough ball, folding over 10 to 20 times.
Using a rolling pin roll the dough to 1/3 to 1/2-inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 1/4-inch ring. Roll each round as thinly as possible or to 5 to 6 inches in diameter.
Assemble and Bake the Pies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling onto the dough, brush the edges of half of the dough lightly with the egg wash, fold over and seal the edges together with the tines of a fork, dipping it into flour as needed. Gently press down to flatten and evenly distribute the filling and snip or cut 3 slits in the top of the pie.
Brush a little bit of egg wash on the outside of the pie and sprinkle with decorating sugar.
Place finished pies onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Dough Recipe from Alton Brown
Filling Recipe from Dinner and Dessert, originally from Smitten Kitchen
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
OMG, I am in love with these cupcakes! They’re so awesome! I love HP, and I made owl cupcakes when the movie came out. I might need to give these a try before going to see the IMAX 3D movie.
How cute are those?! And i was wondering how you got the lettering so perfect – thanks for the step-by-step. Lol – I just dragged DH to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry – I’m sure he’ll be happy when the final movie comes out and he doesn’t have to hear about it anymore!
Great job, how lucky are your friends?
I’m so jealous! My two sisters are going to the exhibit this weekend. I thought about flying to Chicago to join them. Luckily I found out the exhibit is coming here in October. Whew!
These look fabulous! You did such a great job on them!
WOW JEN!! Those are fantastic!! Better than professional! Seriously, what talent you have to make those! 🙂
Aw thanks Katie – you’re making me blush.
I hate when cupcakes do that to me too. Instead of baking up they bake out! 🙁
Love your Harry Potter cupcake toppers! Very cute and creative!
~ingrid
Hi Jen! A friend of mine forwarded me your page for HP Cupcakes and I just wanted to drop in and say that I think they’re awesome and I want to run home now and try to create some fun hp themed cakes! I had done some in the past–cauldron cakes if you will, by buying mini cauldrons and cutting the bottom off so the tops sat just on the cakes and then used a bit of green frosting on the inside. You should join up with the HP-MA crew! We’ve been organizing some meet-ups for Boston Fans!
Sounds awesome Manda.
Oh my goodness, what adorable little cupcakes!
So so cute! And yeah, those “HPs” must have taken FOREVER. I have a fabulous vanilla cupcake recipe that never fails me here: http://annies-eats.com/2008/07/18/vanilla-cupcakes/. Also, I recently made Dorie’s perfect party cake into cupcakes and had great results with that as well.
I love your HP cupcakes! I too am a huge Harry Potter fan but I have to admit, I don’t think I’d be patient enough to make cupcakes and toppings as cute as yours!
These are so awesome!! I wish I would have seen them and did some of these with the HP cake I did!!