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.
Strawberry Hand Pies
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 pounds of strawberries 4 cups, chopped
- ¼ cup flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
Pastry Dough
- 9 ½ ounces all-purpose flour approximately 2 cups
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- 2 ½ ounces shortening approximately 6 tablespoons
- ¾ cup milk
- Egg wash: 1 egg mixed with 1 to 2 teaspoons water
Instructions
Filling
- 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 ⅓ to ½-inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 ¼-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.
Erin@TheFoodMentalist
These look and sound absolutely delightful! I love strawberries and love pie! The perfect combination 🙂
foodwanderings
Oh my Barbara these look so delicious. So beautifully encased!! I’ve veen baking more and more recently and sure will add these to the list! 🙂 & strawberries season begun so Yay!
Ruchi
I am so not good at making the pastry… but these look so tempting that I have to try it!
You have a beautiful blog!
Ruchi
http://ruchisimplyfood.blogspot.com
Lauren from Lauren's Latest
I love love love hand pies! So much easier and cleaner than a regular pie!
Daniela
Queste tortine alle fragole sono deliziose, anche a me piace l’idea di abbinarle a delle fragole fresche. Un abbraccio Daniela.
Nutmeg Nanny
Soooooo delicious! I love the idea of eating a couple strawberry hand pies for breakfast 🙂 The glaze addition was a major plus…everything is definitely better with a glaze 🙂
Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy
These look super yummy, and better than most of the pop-tart recipes out there.
natalie (the sweets life)
these look adorable!! say the word pop-tart and i have to admit, i’m smitten 🙂
marla {family fresh cooking}
Barbara, I love seeing what you have all baked up for this event. Sounds like loads of fun! These hand pies look amazing with all those strawberries 🙂
Krista @ Meet The Swans
I am absolutely loving these ‘hand-pies’!!! Great choice!
pigpigscorner
The pies are beautiful! Love the colour contrast!
Angie's Recipes
Ｔhose would be a hit in the party as they look so good!
teresa
oh wow, this is killer, i love strawberry pie, i would love to grab on of those babies!
deeba
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!
Jennifer (Savor)
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
kim sisto robinson
Barbara,
Can’t wait to make this.
ohhhhhhhhhhh, so delish & sinful.
xx
Katrina
Yum to everything about these.
And I love measuring things on a scale, too.
Definitely a little drizzle.
Sarah
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.
Tessa
Pie for breakfast? Why not. There’s fruit 🙂 These look great. I’m loving all the strawberries right now too!
Fallon
Wow those look great! Strawberry pie around the summer time is one of my favorites.