Strawberries & Cream Hand Pies
Perfect mini sized pies that fit right in your hand. Filled with a creamy strawberry filling, and wrapped in a flakey buttery crust.
Have I told you that I LOVE PIE?? I've said before and I'll say it again, Pie is my love language. I'm sure you couldn't tell from my Lemon Meringue, Black Bottom Pumpkin, or Ginger Peach pies right?
Along with my love for pie, I've developed a love for mini pies. Hand pies in particular. Last Valentine's day I posted similar pies to these, but with apple filling. Those Apple Hand Pies were so adorable that I decided to carry on the tradition of heart-shaped mini pies for Valentine's Day!
This year, we're trying strawberry pies!
I have never had, nor made a strawberry pie before. So I wanted to keep it simple, to go with the simplistic theme of the hand pies. The filling is made up of cream cheese and strawberries. That's it!
Hand pies can be a little tricky in the filling department. You can't put too much filling in them because you won't be able to seal the top crust to the bottom crust. So you're limited with the space. After they bake, they end up with a high ratio of crust:filling. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But if you want to make the crust less overpowering to the filling, my suggestion is to roll the crust out thinner than I did. My crust was about 1/2 inch thick.
I may have had a little too much fun photographing these babies.
They were just too darn adorable that I couldn't help myself!
If making pie crust from scratch scares you, feel free to use a store bought crust. I used my recipe for a double-crust and the store bought ones usually come with 2 crusts, so that should work perfectly. I do have step-by-step photos of my pie-crust making method that shows how easy it really is here, if you're interested!
Store bought or home made pie crust is rolled out, and hearts are cut. You can use circles, or make rectangles to use all the dough without scraps if you prefer.
Cream cheese is slathered on each bottom crust, and strawberries are piled on. The top crust is attached, sealed, and vented, and they're ready to go!
I like to pop them in the freezer for about 5 minutes at this point to chill the dough, since we've been working with it so much. You want the dough to be cold going in the oven.
RIGHT before going in the oven, (after chilling), coat them in a thin layer of heavy cream or egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar. This is the most important step!! Not really, but I think it makes such a difference in the crust browning and looking flaky, and the sugar just makes them super cute.
**I added sugar to my strawberries in the recipe, but if you think yours are sweet enough you can omit the sugar. Just keep in mind that the filling is only cream cheese and strawberries, so the strawberries will be the only sweetener in this case.
You'll find photos of the steps and the recipe below. Enjoy!
Strawberries & Cream Hand Pies
Yield: 4-6 mini hand pies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 t. salt
- 1 T. sugar
- 1 cup cold butter, cubed
- 1/2 cup ice water
- 2-3 oz. cream cheese
- 1/2 lb. strawberries
- 2 T. heavy cream, for coating pies
- 3-5 T. sugar
Cooking Directions
- For pie crust: Combine flour, salt and sugar. Cut cold butter pieces into the dough with a fork until butter chunks are no larger than the size of peas. Slowly pour in the ice cold water (without the ice) in while stirring. Once the dough can come together when you pinch it, gently form it into a disk, seal in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Dice strawberries up into small chunks, and put in a sealable container.
- Sprinkle 1 T. sugar on strawberries, seal, and shake.
- Let the strawberries marinate in the sugar for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425 F.
- Roll chilled pie crust out to about 1/2 inch thickness, or thinner.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes out and lay them on a prepared baking sheet in pairs.
- Spread about 1 T. of softened cream cheese onto the bottom crust, leaving a boarder around the edge uncovered.
- Pile with about 3 T. chopped strawberries, keeping them on the cream cheese.
- Dip your fingertip in water, and run it along the uncovered edge of the bottom pie.
- Place the empty top crust on top of the strawberry covered crust, and gently press the wet edges together. The water works like glue to seal.
- Use a fork to crimp the edges to better seal everything in.
- Poke holes in the top to make vents.
- Chill pies for 5 minutes in the refrigerator or freezer.
- Coat in heavy cream, sprinkle in sugar, and bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, about 18 minutes at 425 F.
You might also like:
