Pocket Full of Pie

Hand pastries: Perfect portable treat for a picnic, road trip or backyard BBQ

I have a distinct memory of a crescent-shaped fruit pie made by Hostess that we used to munch on as kids. Crisp and oozing with jammy fruit, it was the kind of snack you might purchase from the vending machine near the high school cafeteria or at the grocery when your mother sent you to pick up a few items. At that point, I was already watching my weight and mostly living off apples, carrots and cottage cheese, but a bite or two of a friend’s small pastry clearly didn’t count!

A guilty pleasure of my childhood.

My mother was an accomplished baker, but she was more likely to make a poundcake than a pie, though, when the apricot tree in our backyard was laden with fruit, I’m sure she made a pie or two, but these would have been the traditional variety baked in a round 9-inch pyrex dish, not the miniature hand-friendly kind.

A variety of preserves I’ve made recently — perfect for filling a hand pie or spreading on toast.

This summer, as I’ve been trying to think of what to do with the multiple varieties of preserves I’ve been making from strawberries, peaches and apricots from local farmers markets, I came across several recipes for hand pies. With the Fourth of July upon us and nothing more ambitious planned than a backyard barbecue for three, making small jam-filled pies seemed like just the ticket.

In case you haven’t come across hand pies, they’re basically just what you would imagine — pastry-wrapped fillings you can hold with your fingers and consume on the go. As noted in an 2019 article in The Takeout, almost every culture has its own version — from the English Cornish pasty to samosas from Central and Southern Asia. They can be savory or sweet.

I prefer sweet, especially when there’s such an abundance of summer fruits right now, though I just came across a Bon Appetit recipe for Cheesy Tomato Hand Pies in my in-box that made my mouth water. It sounds a bit like a calzone, except that it’s made with puff pastry instead of pizza dough.

Square hand pies made with star-shaped vents. The top square of dough sandwiches the jam filling. I pasted the edges together with a fork, but fingers would do just as well.

The recipe I decided to try was for Blueberry Hand Pies, from King Arthur Baking Co. At first I thought I would use my own preserves, but I’m a stickler for following the recipe on the first try. I also worried that the preserves I’d made might not be quite thick enough and would explode out of the vents in the top of the pastries. The King Arthur recipe included a thickener that might keep the filling in place.

Blueberry hand pie: the top is brushed with egg and sprinkled with sugar.

Notes on what I did and what to try next time:

1. I decided to make half-recipes of blueberry and strawberry fillings, using another King Arthur recipe for Strawberry Hand Pies for the strawberry filling.
2. I used the pastry in the Blueberry Hand Pie recipe. It includes sour cream, along with plenty of butter and was very flaky, though not sweet. A sprinkling of coarse sugar on egg-washed dough added just the right amount to crunchy sweetness. Any pie dough — whether homemade or store-bought — would work.
3. Instead of rolling the dough into 14-by-14-inch square and marking off into sixteen 3 1/2-inch squares (that then turn into eight 2-sided pies), I rolled out the dough in smaller increments. (Note: You don’t need to be a geometry whiz, but you definitely need a ruler or tape measure for this! I also recommend checking out an updated King Arthur post on this recipe that offers more useful tips!)
4. The blueberry and strawberry fillings, which include cornstarch or another thickener, are easy to make, but I can’t wait to try some of my homemade preserves in my next batch. If the jam’s a bit runny, I might add some cornstarch and thicken the mixture by heating it briefly on the stove.
5. I’m not a very precise person, so some of my squares came out more like trapezoids, and one of the pastries turned into a crescent. One suggestion: Once the edges are pasted together with a fork, square them off with a sharp knife or pizza wheel. You can also make these pies triangular by folding diagonally or into half moons by cutting the dough into 7- or 8-inch circles and folding in half.
6. A variation at the bottom of the blueberry hand pie recipe suggests adding some rye flour to the crust and making a cinnamon-apple filling. This sounds like a perfect recipe for fall — if I can wait that long!

We didn’t pocket our pies — we had them for dessert, heated with a scoop of vanilla (from the incomparable Santa Barbara-based McConnell’s Ice Cream). It was a nice capper for a quiet Fourth, though the sound of fireworks went on well into the wee hours.

In Southern California, it definitely feels like people have decided the virus is OVER and they are going to par-TAY, come what may! I guess I’m okay with that — as long as they don’t burn down our tinder-dry state or spark a resurgence of the pandemic. Hopefully, folks will show some restraint and cool down with a little pie and ice cream — or perhaps a long soak in a hot tub by the sea with a very cold drink. Sounds good to me.

See you next time!

Originally published at https://ruthtalksfood.substack.com.