Friday, June 18, 2010

A Confession & Fruitily Fruitful Hand Pies


I'm going to be straight up with you. There hasn't been much making-from-scratch the past two weeks. Remember how I had surgery two Fridays ago? That equals a whole lot of sitting around, not being allowed to do much of anything. Well, unless I want to get yelled at by my Mom/husband/mother in law. Who thankfully have been helping us with my son the Bear - he is included in the list of things I'm not allowed to lift.

Not only have I not been doing much, my camera broke this past weekend. I never realized how attached I am to my camera until I couldn't use it. My Mom came to the rescue yesterday though, and has allowed me to borrow her camera until I can either find one on eBay or figure out how to get mine fixed for an affordable cost.


This week Ok, last night, I was in a panic. What on earth was I going to post about for my MIFs post?!?!? I haven't done anything MIFs-worthy!! So I am going to share what I baked yesterday: hand pies. They're like sweet little calzones; a tidy handful of pie perfect for school or work lunches, quick snacks and even a dessert if you add a scoop of ice cream (or not!).

My husband goes crazy about these and he doesn't like desserts, as a general rule.
Previously I'd only made apple, but have always wanted to try other fillings. They are essentially a pie, so whatever you might find delicious in a two-crust pie would work. Obviously fillings like lemon meringue or key lime wouldn't work well in this application but if you let your imagination run wild with fruit and fruit combinations, chocolate or heck, even a savory route would be totally yum (I'm thinking a beef n cheddar...).

I made three kinds yesterday: strawberry rhubarb, blueberry and apple. Just a few of each - I only made one batch of pâte brisée and out of that one batch made about twenty hand pies. I would have been able to make more but on the first go around I was unable to reroll the scraps...it was my mistake and I'm still kicking myself but anyway!
Of course it all depends on the size of whatever you are using to cut out your hand pies. I was using a 3.5 inch Cut n Seal (Pampered Chef) that I found at the thrift store for a dollar.

There really isn't a recipe I can share with you - I was just tossing the fruit with sugar, cornstarch/flour, pinches of salt, gratings of fresh nutmeg and splashes of vanilla. For the strawberry rhubarb I added some strawberry gelatin powder to help the fruit set up nicely and not run as much (although they still ran terribly while baking!). Go with your instincts or loosely follow your favorite fruit pie recipes!


My favorite
pâte brisée recipe is from Martha Stewart - it's quite rich with butter but comes out so flaky and tender it's worth the extra calories.

What would you put in a hand pie??


I usually blog at
Gotta Little Space
and Suitable For Consumption, come say hi!

12 comments:

  1. I hope you're recovering from your surgery well. Hopefully it wasn't anything serious! These look delicious and are definitely MIF worthy.

    I gave you a shout out on my blog today. Hope you have a great weekend!

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  2. Those look wonderful. Hope you're feeling 100% soon.

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  3. It's tough when we're not allowed to lift our kids, eh? I dread when my son's too big to carry any more.

    These look great & I'm gonna give them a try. Pate Brise is one of my favourite crusts and the first I ever mastered. Here's a link
    http://muminbloom.blogspot.com/2010/03/recipe-maple-nut-pie-pie-crust-recipe.html

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  4. It sounds so good thanks for the idea, I am doing my Baking this morning while it's still cool I think I will make some of these up.

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  5. I clicked through because the fruit pies sounded so delicious, but when you mentioned beef and cheddar I changed my mind. A hand-held cheeseburger pie? Yum!
    Stacy

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  6. Get well! That is a great idea. I have one of those PC crimper things and need to get busy!

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  7. i haven't even read the post yet and i'm salivating over the picture. My husband would love me for making these. Now I'm going back to read so I can copy and save. ;)
    its friday im hopping
    http://home-momblog.blogspot.com/

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  8. I just found this blog believe it or not, while recovering from surgery that has me strikeGoing out of my mind/strike "taking it easy" This is awesome! I can't wait to try your recipes!

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  9. I make them ALL the time and my bunch loves them too. They like sweet but savory is fantastic too!

    Another great flavor is bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese and any other kinds of things like diced tomatoes, onion, or peppers. Bake them till they're just about done, allow to cool then freeze. While the kids are getting ready for school, pop them in an oven for 10 minutes and BAM - hot home made breakfast on the go!

    Goodbye store bought breakfast sandwiches! ;D

    Hope you feel better soon!

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  10. These pies look amazing! I will have to find my PC gadget and get creative with it. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  11. Looking yummy! What kind of pastry do you use?

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