VALENTINE HAND PIES

Valentine's Day will be even sweeter if you serve your loved ones these adorable VALENTINE HAND PIES!

Mine are sour cherry and blueberry/strawberry! So yummy and quite easy to make. And they are shaped like scrumptious hearts you can hold in your hand! How fun!

Edible LOVE, what could be better...

I'm joining 23 other LOVE-ly blogger's for...

Make sure you check out the end of this post for all the other Valentine posts!

As many of you know, I am not a baker. But I have a thing for single serve foods. And little hand pies were on my "must try" list.

Because I have never made a hand pie before I turned to the expert of all things domestic... Martha Stewart.

I just love all her doughs. They are perfection! And the dough for this hand pie was no exception. It was wonderful to work with and perfect to hold all that yummy filling!

You can see Martha's original recipe HERE.  I just tweaked it ever so slightly to make Valentine sour cherry and blueberry/strawberry pies.

STONEGABLE VALENTINE HAND PIES

DOUGH

1 TBS sour cream

1 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice~ no pulp

3 TBS ice water + more as needed

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 stick cold butter-cut into small pieces

FRUIT FILLING

*1 cup fresh fruit (this can be mixed, but 1 cup total)

1/4 cup sugar

1  1/2 TBS corn starch

GLAZE

1 egg

1 tsp water

sanding sugar (regular sugar is fine too)

Put sour cream, lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, add flour, salt and sugar. Whirl until mixed... just a couple of seconds.

Add cold butter to flour mixture and pulse until butter is incorporated into the flour, about 15 seconds.

Add ice water to sour cream and lemon juice. Whisk together. Add to processor and pulse until it makes a crumbly dough. Press the dough between your fingers to see if it sticks together. If it does not, add a few drops of water to the processor and check if the dough sticks together. The dough should not be wet or too "shaggy".

Shape the dough into two discs.Wrap each dis in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30~ 45 minutes. The dough must be chilled to work with.

Roll out each disc one at a time, to an average dough thickness and cut out 16 hearts with a large heart cookie cutter. My cutter was 3 1/3 inches tall and 4 1/2 inches at the widest part of the heart.

Put the dough hearts onto 2 parchment lined baking sheets and chill for an additional 15 minutes.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 375 DEGREES.

Meanwhile, make the filling.

(Fruit that is very large, like strawberries, need to be cut into smaller chunks)

Add the fruit to a bowl. Add sugar and corn starch. Mix and let sit for at least 5 minutes.

*My cherries were frozen, thawed and the excess liquid squeezed out.  I used fresh strawberries and blueberries and found them to be a much better filling. Use fresh fruit if possible.

Mound 1 TBS of fruit mixture in the center of a heart cut out. This is a judgement call. The more fruit, the better the hand pies taste. But too much fruit make the hand pies hard to work with. 

Put water in a cup and using your clean finger, dip it into the water and run it around the edge of the heart cut out.

Put a heart on top of the bottom heart with the filling and match up the edges. Using a fork, press the edges together so the are secure.

Cut little x's into the top of the heart to vent steam.

Continue making the remainder of the little pies.

Put the 8 hand pies on 2 parchment lined baking sheet.  Whisk the egg and water in a small bowl. Brush it over the pies. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake pies on two racks in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Watch them very carefully... don't let the crust get too dark!

Remove the little heart hand pies to a wire rack and cool completely. Or if you can't wait, eat them hot... just be careful the filling can burn your mouth.

YUMMY!

VALENTINE LOVE!

Remember to

Here are a couple of other Valentine ideas...

VALENTINE BUTTON HEART DIY

VALENTINE HOT CHOCOLATE BAR

Do you receive my newsletters? I write them myself and let you know about current posts and other archived seasonal posts you might like! If you would like to subscribe you will find a grey box on the left side of my blog sorta at the top that says KEEP IN TOUCH.

I am partying with...

NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAY

Here are the LOVE-ly bloggers sharing Valentine Inspiration!

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday