STRAWBERRY HAND PIES.

These strawberry hand pies are delicious, with flaky pastry dough and refreshing strawberry centres that guarantee a burst of zesty flavour with every bite. A good dessert for gifting or sharing with friends and family.

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Whenever I am making pastry dough, I usually make sure that it’s a huge batch. This is because of its many uses, and I’m always making pastry dishes from savoury meat or vegetable pies to sweet tarts or beautifully woven pies.

Hand pies are convenient, no blind baking is necessary, and there is an equal balance of filling and pastry with every bite. You can also air fry, bake or deep fry. It mostly depends on preference and availability. For berry desserts, I prefer air frying or baking them.

One economical way of utilizing over-ripe strawberries is by cooking, baking or roasting them. Besides these strawberry hand pies, you can use ripe strawberries to make Compote, Crumble or a delicious Strawberry tea cake.

Of course, after baking strawberry hand pies, you have to let them cool . I find hot or warm Strawberry tasting funny since I prefer fresh berry desserts cold and sweet. However, if you are okay with warm baked strawberries, you can start enjoying them immediately; the dough will also be much softer.

I prefer indulging specifically in strawberry hand pies a day after baking; I find that the more they sit, the more intense the strawberry flavour develops. However, like with most berry desserts, the storage time is limited, baked or not, and they cannot exceed 3 -4 days in the fridge and 2 days maximum when stored at room temperature.

How to make Strawberry hand pies.

Make the pastry dough.

Pastry dough is made with three essential ingredients. Flour, butter for flavour and texture, and water for binding and strengthening the dough. A bit of sugar to sweeten and salt to balance out flavour. No leavening is required since we don’t want it to puff up like a brioche or cinnamon buns.

Start by mixing flour with sugar and salt in a medium sized bowl.

Add cold cubed butter to the flour mixture and mix using a pastry cutter.

(Water is not added directly to the flour, thus inhibiting strong gluten strands, which form when flour gets in contact with water)

Afterwards, pour in the water gradually mixing to form a soft dough . Cover with a cling film and refrigerate at least one hour.

Make the strawberry filling.

To make the filling, you will need

1. Fresh ripe strawberries. Fully mature strawberries have more flavour and cook quickly to produce a thick filling.
2. Granulated Sugar. Sweetener, you can substitute with honey, castor or brown sugar.
3. Cornstarch. To make the filling thicker.
4. Fresh lemon juice. To intensify the strawberry flavour.

Mix fresh strawberries with sugar, fresh lemon juice, and cornstarch in a medium-sized pot.

Cook over medium heat, stirring until the strawberries are fully cooked, and the mixture turns thick.

Set aside to cool.

Roll and fill the pastry

Remove the chilled pastry dough from the fridge. If it’s too stiff, let it thaw at room temperature for 15-20 minutes.

Flour a flat surface, and start rolling it out using a rolling pin to a thin sheet( about 1/4 inch) .

Cut circles on the rolled-out dough using a large round cookie cutter .

Put a teaspoon of the filling on each cut circle, then cover with another pastry circle. Using a fork, press around the edges to tightly lock the filling so it does not seep out during baking.

Place on a parchment-lined baking tray and make a small incision on the top part of each hand pie. Then, brush with eggs whites.

Bake

Bake in a preheated oven for up to 20-25 minutes at 170 C or until the pies turn golden brown around the edges.

Remove from the oven, and set aside to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 4 days refrigerated or 2 days at room temperature.

What to observe when making Strawberry hand pies.

Pre-cook the strawberry filling . More filling will be incorporated since it will be a thick paste. Pre-cooking also allows adding more ingredients, like lemon, which helps intensify the strawberry flavour and sugar to sweeten.

Mix butter with flour before adding any liquid ingredient to the pastry dough. This limits the development of gluten strands making the dough soft and flaky .

Make small incisions with a knife on the top pastry after sealing the strawberry filling; before baking. as the strawberry filling bakes, it will expand, producing air that will need an escape route. If you fail to make small incisions on the dough, the air will find any opening or might as well burst through the softest space, which can excessively spill the strawberry filling.

Correctly space out the pies during baking.

Completely seal off the strawberry filling; otherwise, it will ultimately seep out during baking.

Related Recipes

1. Orange Strawberry Bundt Cake
2. Strawberry Sandwich cookies