Homemade Apple Hand Pies

Homemade Apple Hand Pies,  the most tender and flaky homemade pie crust envelops chunks of apples spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and Bourbon vanilla powder. A seasonal favorite snack, that can double up as breakfast and dessert. Delicious either warm or cold. And since it’s portable, you can add it to your kids’ lunchbox or bring it to work to share with co-workers.

Song of the day: Wild Horses – Gino Vannelli

I just love baking with apples! I love baking, that’s it. However, I am always ecstatic when I have apples to work with. Here, I combined two of my favorite things. Making my go-to, no-fail, pie dough and filling it with chunks of soft, buttery, spiced apples. The fact that the outcome is a pretty hand pie in the shape of a half-moon, just adds to the delight.

Homemade Apple Hand Pies: Making Pie Dough

With just 5 ingredients and a mixer, you can obtain the flakiest, most tender pie dough. The recipe is enough to make quite a few hand pies, or a top and bottom pie. I used half of the dough and put the other half in the freezer for later use. I am thinking of pot pie??

Homemade Apple Hand Pies: Steps of Making Pie Dough

1. Place the flour, butter, shortening, and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Pulse until you see crumbles and the mixture seems a bit dry. Do not overmix.
2. Add the ice-cold water all at once and pulse until the dough starts to come together.
3. Pour the raggedy dough on a surface.
4. Shape it together and flatten it. It will be easier to work, after.

At this point, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days. To make these hand pies, I used half of the dough and froze the other half (it will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months).

Homemade Apple Hand Pies: Make the filling

It’s time to make the filling of these Homemade Apple Hand Pies. 

1. Slice, core, peel, and cut the apples in cubes, place them in a bowl and squeeze in the lemon juice to prevent browning. Toss the apples with the maple syrup, cane sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, Bourbon vanilla powder, and nutmeg.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat up the butter, add the spiced apples, and stir. Reduce heat and cook for about 5-6 minutes or until apples are tender. Set aside to cool slightly.

Homemade Apple Hand Pies: The Assembly

It is quite fun to roll, cut, fill and shape the hand pies! 

1. After the 30 minutes, or more, in the fridge, take the dough out, lightly flour your work surface and place the pie dough, sprinkling some more flour on top. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough from the center outward, using more flour if needed to prevent it from sticking to the board or the rolling pin. Roll the dough in a rectangle about 1/2 cm thick.
2. Using a round mold (mine was 11 cm, 4 1/2 inch), cut the shapes, re-rolling and cutting the scraps of dough until finished. In the end, I had 9 circles. Spoon 1 Tbsp of the apple mixture onto the center of each circle. 
3. Fold each in half diagonally to form a half-moon. Press the edges first with your fingers, then seal with a fork.

Homemade Apple Hand Pies: Ready for the oven

1. Transfer the hand pies to the prepared baking sheet, and brush with egg wash. With a sharp knife cut a few vents into each hand pie. Finally, sprinkle some sugar on top.
2. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden, then take out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

I am always so excited when I take my baked goods out of the oven! I stare at them like a proud mama, lol. I might be biased but they look beautiful and smell delicious. The crust looks flaky and tender, can’t wait to have one in my hand!

The joy of these hand pies is how easy they are to eat. And you get all the delectable flavors and textures in the grasp of your hand. They’re dangerous, though, because the pastry is so light, buttery and flaky and the filling soft and fruity, and in just two bites it’s gone. Only to be followed by the grasp of another.

Final Thoughts

Whether for breakfast, brunch, snack, dessert, these Homemade Apple Hand Pies are always a hit. One option you may consider is a warmed up hand pie on top of a mound of ice cream. Food for thought, lol!

Enjoy!

Song of the day: Wild Horses – Gino Vannelli

Homemade Apple Hand Pies

★★★★★

5 from 10 reviews

• Author: Nicoletta
• Prep Time: 1 hour
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Yield: 9 hand pies 1x
• Category: Sweets, Pie
• Method: Baking

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Description

Homemade Apple Hand Pies,  the most tender and flaky homemade pie crust envelops chunks of apples spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and Bourbon vanilla powder. A seasonal favorite snack, that can double up as breakfast and dessert. Delicious either warm or cold.

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Ingredients

Duchess Cookbook Easy Mixer Pie Dough:

• 320 g (2 cups) organic, unbleached all-purpose flour
• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cubed, cold
• 100 g (1/2 cup) vegetable shortening, cubed, cold
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 121 g (1/2 cup) ice water

For the apples:

• 7 small-medium apples, about 3 cups
• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp Bourbon vanilla powder
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 1/2 Tbsp salted butter

For the topping:

• 1 small egg + 1 tsp water, well beaten, to brush on top before baking
• sugar to sprinkle on top after the egg wash

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Instructions

For the pie dough:

1. Place the flour, butter, shortening, salt in a stand mixer bowl. Pulse until you see crumbles and the mixture seems a bit dry. Do not overmix.
2. Add the ice-cold water and pulse until the dough just comes together. You should still be able to see lumps of fat in the dough.
3. Pour the raggedy dough on a surface. Shape the dough into 2 balls, flatten it, then wrap each in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days. To make these hand pies, I used one, and froze the other ball (it will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months).
4. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

For the apples:

1. Use an apple slicer to core and divide the apples into slices. Remove the skin and cut in cubes. Place them in a bowl, and squeeze in the lemon juice to prevent browning.
2. Toss the apples with the maple syrup, cane sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, Bourbon vanilla powder and nutmeg.
3. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat up the butter, add the spiced apples and stir. Reduce heat and cook for about 5-6 minutes or until apples are tender. Set aside to cool slightly.

Assemble the hand pies:

1. After the 30 minutes, or more, in the fridge, take the dough out, lightly flour your work surface and place the cold pie dough, sprinkling some more flour on top. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough from the centre outward, using more flour if needed to prevent from sticking. Roll the dough in a rectangle about 1/2 cm thick.
2. Using a round mold (mine was 11 cm, 4 1/2 inch), cut the shapes, re-rolling and cutting the scraps of dough until finished. In the end I had 9 circles.
3. Spoon 1 Tbsp of the apple mixture onto the center of each circle.
4. Fold each in half diagonally to form a half moon. Press the edges first with your fingers, then seal with a fork.
5. Transfer the hand pies to the prepared baking sheet, and brush with egg wash.
6. With a sharp knife cut a few vents into each hand pie. Finally, sprinkle some sugar on top.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden, then take out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

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Notes

The pie dough is enough to make a top and bottom pie and quite a few hand pies. I used half of the dough and froze the other half, well wrapped in plastic, to use later (I want to make pot pies). With half of the dough I made 9 hand pies, enough for us and to share with neighbors and family.

I made these hand pies again and added fresh raspberries to the sauteed apples. That bit of tartness was a delicious surprise. Plus, the added color!

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I made them again and added fresh raspberries to the apples. That bit of tartness was delightful! Not to mention they were extremely pretty.