My secret blogger this month for the Secret Recipe Club is Jen, Beantown Baker. I was excited to make something from Jen’s delicious blog because we’re both bakers. She explains, “In case you can’t tell, I’m more of a baker than a cook. There’s just something about the scientific, meticulous nature of baking that I love.” I couldn’t agree more. I even think it’s fun to use my digital scale to get measurements just right.
One of my favorite things to bake (and of course eat) is pie. Since the market is filled with gorgeous strawberries right now, I decided to bake the Strawberry Hand Pies Jen posted last June. She said she ended up eating some of her strawberry pies for breakfast and that sounded like a fabulous idea to me.
So for breakfast last Saturday, I made the dough and filling and had my twin, teenage boys join me in the kitchen to make hand pies (Pop Tarts?). They came together in no time and it was fun having my kids help in the kitchen.
The dough isn’t a flaky pie crust type of dough, so it’s really easy to roll out and shape. My filling wasn’t as sweet as I would have liked, so I added a little drizzle of icing. Okay, I might have added a drizzle of icing even if the filling was sweeter. Isn’t everything better with a drizzle of icing.
If you haven’t made hand pies yet, give it a try. They’re as much fun to make as they are to eat. Be sure and visit Jen, Beantown Baker, and checkout her delicious pies and other scrumptious recipes.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of strawberries (4 cups, chopped)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 9 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 2 cups
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 2 1/2 ounces shortening, approximately 6 tablespoons
- 3/4 cup milk
- Egg wash: 1 egg mixed with 1 to 2 teaspoons water
Directions
- Hull and cut strawberries into small pieces. Mix them with the flour, sugar and pinch of salt. (You may want to increase the sugar depending on how sweet your berries are - next time I would add more sugar.)
- Pastry Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350º.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the shortening and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or mix it in with your hands until it is crumbly.
- Add the milk all at once and mix in with a spatula until it begins to come together.
- Lightly flour your hands and the countertop and turn the dough out onto the countertop. Knead the dough ball, folding over 10 to 20 times.
- Using a rolling pin roll the dough to 1/3 to 1/2-inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 1/4-inch ring. Roll each round as thinly as possible or to 5 to 6 inches in diameter.
- Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling onto the dough, brush the edges of half of the dough lightly with the egg wash, fold over and seal the edges together with the tines of a fork, dipping it into flour as needed. Gently press down to flatten and evenly distribute the filling and snip or cut 3 slits in the top of the pie.
- Brush a little bit of egg wash on the outside of the pie and sprinkle with decorating sugar.
- Place finished pies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
adapted from Beantown Baker
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Those look delicious! I agree, a little icing drizzle DOES make anything better
Those are adorable, Barbara. I made Giada’s recipe last year for blueberry hand pies, but they were so fragile. Delicious, but broke apart in your hands. I’m going to make them again and try your crust. And she deep fried hers, you baked. Much healthier!
Barbara -these look great! Can’t wait to give them a go. And agree on the icing front. It’s a must.
They are so delicious!
I just received Martha’s new pie cookbook and have been eyeing her strawberry hand pies. Yours are gorgeous and I LOVE the idea of adding a little icing. Now, if only I had one for breakfast
Wow, they look so delicious and tempting.
Awesome recipe ♥
I was given your wonderful space of recipes to choose from.
Love the drizzle on the pies.
These are so pretty. I love the concept of indiviual ones to make it easier for me to control portion size! Great photos!
Those look delicious! Yum!
Jen has a lovely blog. That recipe is fabulous. I bet those hand pies are addictive!
Cheers,
Rosa
Barbara, those look so delicious. I love strawberries and yours look yummy.
Everything is definitely better with a drizzle of icing! Great choice and hand pies in my opinion are the “perfect” kind of pie to have around!
These pies are adorable, Barbara! I’m bookmarking this recipe and planning to make it in a couple weeks when local strawberries are out here!
Your hand pies look delicious, Barbara. Our weather has been so cold that we may not have strawberries until August. I bet peaches and berries would be wonderful as well.
Oh these look wonderful! I just bought a bundle of rhubarb from the local farmers market, so I’m thinking some strawberry-rhubarb hand pies are in order!
DELICIOUS! Great looking pies and you are absolutely right, everything is better with a drizzle (or pouring) of frosting!
Love this idea… and can’t wait to try the pastry with baking powder! I would drizzle everything if I could get away with it – makes it look artsy (and a little more sweet can’t hurt, right?)
Strawberry hand pie would make a perfect breakfast! And the drizzle looks like a must!
Great pick!!!
Love that you can just pick up one of these like a cookie and run with it! Great looking little pies.
Is it wrong that I wanna eat these for breakfast?
Hmm.. I have never made a hand pie but they look so cute and fun to eat. I have been on a “pie kick” lately, so I’ll have to give these a try! And yes, everything is better with icing
Happy Monday!
I’ve never made hand pies, but I love the idea. They look like sweet little empanadas!
I love hand pies! My favorite are cherry, but I bet strawberry would be just as amazing. So glad you played along again this month Barbara!
They look delicious! I haven’t tried hand pies yet but they look like something I’d love.
I have wanted to make hand pies for awhile now, and looking at your gorgeous little strawberry pies has really motivated me to get a move on!
These look so…grabbable! Yum, Barbara!
Those look gorgeous! Love the drizzled icing too.
Oh YUM!!! I might have to make this, cheating, of course, with some refrigerated pie dough I have hanging around. Lovely.
I remember eating hand pies when I was a kid, but they were nothing like the beautiful fresh delicious ones you just made. Wish I could have eaten yours back then because they look superb.
I love the ease of hand pies and my kids would love to have these for breakfast.
Mimi
Gorgeous!!! I can’t seem to get enough strawberries right now and these look absolutely heavenly!
I think we all agree that Strawberry Hand Pies are what’s for breakfast!
Gorgeous pictures. That’s exactly why I love baking too.. it’s so precise and meticulate.
This sounds fabulous! I love strawberry pastries…YUM!
I love that the filling is made from fresh strawberries and not jam. I definitely need to branch out into hand held pies. YUM!
Deliciously beautiful sweet juicy treats! I’m sure these would be a big hit at our house. I couldn’t wait to do a strawberry recipe this month, too. My strawberry mascarpone ice cream would pair up well with your hand pies!
Ooooooo, I wish I had one right now! These look and sound delicious. Of course your pics are outstanding as always. I have now added these to my “to do” list!
Ditto, ditto, ditto
I’m so going to have to try these too.
This looks beyond amazing! Love this one
Oh! These look so delicious! Haven’t made hand pies before but you surely have tempted me to! Bookmarking it!
These look so fun to make! Perfect for a barbecue or picnic I think.
Wow those look great! Strawberry pie around the summer time is one of my favorites.
Pie for breakfast? Why not. There’s fruit
These look great. I’m loving all the strawberries right now too!
Drizzled icing sounds like an amazing addition. Your reference to pop tarts reminds me that I meant to make brown sugar ones without frosting for my Mom on Mother’s Day. Oops.
Yum to everything about these.
And I love measuring things on a scale, too.
Definitely a little drizzle.
Barbara,
Can’t wait to make this.
ohhhhhhhhhhh, so delish & sinful.
xx
Thrilled to have taken part in SRC with you and to have discovered so many new blogs! Loce the simplicity but tastiness for this recipe
Ooooooh love them GF. Yay for bakers, and yay that you picked these. I can see me making these sometime soon. Love the dressing up you drizzled on them, and love the pastry recipe too. Bookmarked! This is turning out to be a real fun club!
oh wow, this is killer, i love strawberry pie, i would love to grab on of those babies!
Ｔhose would be a hit in the party as they look so good!
The pies are beautiful! Love the colour contrast!