Cherry Hand Pies

from ButterYum

makes 8 hand pies

Ingredients

• chilled single all-butter pie crust (food processor recipe here, or make-by-hand recipe here)

• 1 pound pitted tart cherries, fresh or frozen (aka sour cherries)

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (or more to taste)

• 2 1/2 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour (see notes below)

• zest of 1/2 lemon

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1/4 pure almond extract (use the good stuff)

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• milk for brushing on crust (see notes below)

• turbinado sugar for sprinkling (aka sugar in the raw)

Directions

1. Place pitted cherries, granulated sugar, tapioca starch/flour, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

2. Over high heat, cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens; remove from heat and stir in pure almond extract and salt.

3. Taste the cherry filling and add more sugar if needed; set aside to cool (spread on a sheet pan to speed the process up).

4. On a floured pastry cloth, roll the chilled pie dough into a 1/8-inch thin layer. 

5. Cut rectangles of pie dough that are a bit larger than the cutter you plan to use.

6. Place 2 tablespoons of filling in the center of one rectangle of dough, then brush the edges with water and top with a 2nd dough rectangle; press edges to seal well.

7. Use scalloped cutter to trim the hand pies into neat shapes and transfer to a silpat-lined half sheet pan; chill hand pies for at least 10 minutes while oven preheats.

8. Preheat oven to 400F with the rack in the center position.

9. Brush hand pies with milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar; cut 3 small slits in the top of each hand pie, being sure not to pierce the bottoms..

10. Bake center of preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to rest on pan until cool enough to handle.

Notes

• Cherry filling can be made up to 5 days ahead; store refrigerated in an airtight container.

• An equal amount of cornstarch can be substituted for the tapioca starch/flour, but cornstarch will break down upon freezing so be sure to use tapioca if you plan to freeze these hand pies.

• The crust can be brushed with milk, cream, half-and-half, or a beaten egg mixed with a splash of water.

• To freeze unbaked hand pies - Prepare them through step 7 above, then flash freeze for a couple of hours before transferring to an airtight container (I like to vacuum seal them).  Keep frozen up to 3 months.

• To bake frozen hand pies - Place frozen pies on silpat-lined half sheet pan, brush with milk or half-and-half, sprinkle with turbinado sugar, and bake in a preheated 400F oven for 25-30 minutes.

• These hand pies are best served within 24 hours of baking.  Leftovers should be stored at room temperature, NOT in an airtight container.  Storing in an airtight container will result in the crust losing its crisp, flaky texture.

• To make a 9-inch cherry pie, double the crust and cherry filling given in the recipe.  The filling for this recipe should not be cooked before baking a pie - just mix the filling ingredients well, pour into crust-lined 9-inch pie plate, cover with strips of pie crust to form a lattice top.  Brush crust with milk or half-and-half and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.  Place pie plate on a half sheet pan before baking for 60-75 minutes in a preheated 400F oven.  Allow pie to cool before serving.