This weeks #BakingWithBeth cherry hand pie recipe is one I’ve been wanting to make for a while! For the fourth recipe of pie month, we’re going mini with a cherry hand pie. I’ve made a number of mini and two-bite sized tarts, but never pie. And these definitely won’t be my last hand pies with all the variety of filling options.
This recipe is super simple to whip up, especially cheating a little bit and using store-bought puff pastry. I really liked making puff pastry during pastry school (and all laminated doughs!), but as it’s a fairly involved and lengthy process, it’s nice to buy it pre-made. You could even make up the cherry hand pies and freeze a few of them pre-bake for later. Then you’d have them on hand whenever you’ve got a cherry pie for breakfast craving. Because cherry hand pies are totally meant for breakfast, right?! 🙂
I can’t wait to make more hand pies and experiment with all the filling varieties. And get glazed additions involved as well, ala Toaster Struddle. Yum! For this round of cherry hand pies, busted out my Mr. Gigglepants Hibiscus Sugar I got from a local Atlanta artisan dry goods company, Beautiful Briny Sea, to sprinkle on top. The King of Crops sell the Beautiful Briny Sea product line at their Ponce City Market stall, which I discovered during the holiday macaron pop-up. The hibiscus sugar seemed like the perfect match to the cherry hand pies! Next time I might even use a little in the mixture!!
Specialty Tools Needed:
- Hibiscus Sugar, optional (if you’re not in Atlanta, Beautiful Briny Sea have an Etsy shop)
- Pastry brush
If you’re brand new, we have a new recipe that comes out every Thursday. January covered all things Southern cakes: week one/caramel cake, week two/Hummingbird Cake, week three/sour cream pound cake and week four / pineapple upside down cake.
February was all about cookies!! Week five / best chocolate chip cookies, week six / Italian macarons and week seven / chocolate covered alfajores and the final week of the month, week eight / DYI Samoas Girl Scout cookie.
March is everything pi(e)! Week nine kicked off with a chocolate chip cookie with dulce de leche, week ten was my birthday mint chocolate chip grasshopper pie, a bonus Pi Day pizza pie recipe by a guest contributor and week eleven with a savory St. Patrick’s Day Guinness Cottage Pie.
If you’re a regular, thanks again for coming back for another #BakingWithBeth recipe! Be sure to follow along Instagram and Facebook and tag #BakingWithBeth so I can see what kind of recipe for adventures y’all have going on.
Have y’all ever made cherry hand pies? Or any other tasty hand pie fillings y’all want to share?! 🙂
Cheers y’all!
Cherry Hand Pies
Scrumptious cherry hand pies topped with hibiscus sugar
Ingredients
- 342 grams frozen sweet cherries (12 ounces)
- 55 grams dried tart cherries
- 50 grams golden brown sugar
- 110 grams sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 14 grams cornstarch 1 1/2 TBSP
- 16 grams cold water 1 1/2 TBSP
- 1 17oz package puff pastry thawed
Instructions
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Put frozen cherries, dried cherries, brown sugar, sugar, salt, vanilla, lemon juice and zest in a medium size pot.
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Over a medium heat, cook until for a 3-5 minutes until the cherry juice is released. While that is cooking, mix together the cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl.
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Once the cherry juices are released, stir the mixture and then add the corn starch water mixture. Stir to combine.
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Bring the mixture to a boil. As it starts to boil, stir and let cook for another minute. Remove the mixture from heat and let cool. As it cools, it should thicken.
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Cut the thawed puff pastry into 3"x3" squares using a sharp knife. In a small bowl, mix egg whites with a touch of water for your egg wash.
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Spoon 1-1.5 TBSP of mixture onto the puff pastry square. With a pastry brush, brush the perimeter of the square. Place matching puff pastry square on top and push down around the edges to seal. Crimp with a fork around the edges to seal in the mixture. With a sharp knife cut a few slashes in the top of the pie to vent. Continue until all are filled.
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Egg wash all of the pies with the egg white wash mixture. Sprinkle with hibiscus (or plain) sugar. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
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Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown, rotating midway through baking.
Recipe Notes
Recipe was adapted from the Bon Appetit recipe
The filling mixture yields a bit more than my puff pastry. Granted, you might want super filled cherry pies, so you could always evenly divide among the puff pastry squares. Or you could decrease the amount of filling quantities, or get more puff pastry and make extra pies! 🙂
For the dried cherries, I used the Costco Kirkland brand Tart Montmorency Cherries
