Description
These cute hand pies are full of summer cherries and sweet cream cheese. Bring them to your next BBQ!
Ingredients
Scale
Pie dough:
- 100g whole wheat flour
- 130g all purpose flour
- 3T granulated sugar
- 1t baking powder
- 1 1/4t kosher salt
- 220g unsalted butter (about 2 sticks), cold and in 1/2″ cubes
- 1/4C ice cold water
- 1 egg + a splash of water for egg wash
- Turbino sugar for finishing
Cherry filling:
- 2C cherries, pitted and halved
- 1/3C granulated sugar
- 2T corn starch
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1/4C water
Cream cheese filling:
- 4oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- zest from half a lemon
- 1/8C – 1/4C granulated sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
Instructions
- Make the pie dough: Add both flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add your butter and gently toss to make sure every piece is coated in flour before going in with your hands and breaking up the butter pieces. Working quickly, break up the cubes between your fingers until you have achieved a healthy mix of pea-sized pieces and cornflake pieces.
- Make a well in the center and add the water. Begin folding everything together gently before dumping the mixture onto a clean work surface. Pile up the dough into a mountain, squeezing it together. Then, flatten it, re-pile, and squeeze again. Do this just until your dough is a shaggy mass that can hold its shape. Work it into a 3/4″ thick circle, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour. (But this can absolutely be done the day before.)
- Make the cherry filling: In a saucepan, combine the cherries, sugar, corn starch, salt, and water. Stir together and place over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally and crushing the cherries with the back of your spoon to get a mix of textures.
- Once the mixture comes to a boil, lower the temperature and continue stirring until it reaches the desired thickness. Let the cherries cool completely. Note that the mixture will continue to thicken as it cools. Set in the fridge to cool.
- Make the cream cheese mixture: In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, yolk, zest, and 1/8C of granulated sugar. Whisk together until smooth and give it a taste. If you would like the mixture a little sweeter, add the remaining sugar. Set in the fridge to cool.
- Assemble: Preheat your oven to 400F and line two sheet pans with parchment or silicone mat. On a clean work surface, dusted with flour, roll out your dough to about 1/6″- 1/8″ thick. While rolling the dough, continue to move it around, adding more flour as necessary. Stamp out as many 4″ circles as possible—I recommend only rolling out the dough twice, as any more will start to toughen it. Try for 16 – 18 circles.
- Gently stretch 8 (or 9 if you managed 18 circles) so they’re a little larger, these will be your bases. Dollop 2T of cherry filling and a heaping 1t of cream cheese onto all of the bases. Top with a layer of dough, pressing down to seal. I like folding the excess from the base layer up to create a gallete-looking perimeter. However, dipping a fork in some flour and then going around the edges with it works great too.
- Poke a few holes in the top of each hand pie with a fork or knife to ensure you don’t have any eruptions.
- Make the egg wash by whisking your whole egg with a splash of water. Brush the egg wash over the top of the hand pies and sprinkle a healthy dose of Turbino sugar over that.
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the sheet pan and then transfer to the wire rack to cool for another 20 minutes before serving.
Notes
All of these components can be made the day before and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to use.
Keywords: cherry hand pies, summer desserts, cherries and cream cheese,