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A Cherry Hand Pies Recipe and Baking with the Kids

by Jean Van't Hul
April 25, 2012
Cherry Hand Pies Recipe

The girls and I baked these cherry hand pies a few days ago. So, so good!

(I’ll include the printable recipe below…)

I was reminded about hand pies when I came across Amy Karol’s rhubarb hand pies on pinterest the other day. We’ve made blueberry hand pies (inspired by her Angry Chicken post), and I would so love to make the rhubarb ones just as soon as I see rhubarb for sale, but hadn’t attempted a cherry version until now.

Cherry Hand Pies

We used a slightly modified version of my cherry pie recipe. Two cans of sour pie cherries instead of three (plus the juice from one can) and only 3/4 cup of sugar.

This time, though, I cooked the cherry pie filling over the stovetop first. I wanted the filling to be properly thickened before I spooned it onto the pie dough. Also, I wasn’t sure the shorter baking time that the small hand pies warranted would be enough to cook the filling.

Cherry Hand Pies

The pie dough is the same, but you could use any pie dough, including purchased or even puff pastry (as we do for turnovers).

Here, I have everything set out to assemble the hand pies, including rolled pie dough (Maia and Daphne each had their own pie dough to roll etc as well), cooked and cooled pie filling, egg wash with pastry brush, and some sugar for sprinkling on top.

Cherry Hand Pies

First, we rolled the dough and cut it into smaller sections. Or, as with Daphne, above, made a pattern of cut marks across the pie dough with her butter knife.

A cherry hand pies recipe and baking with the kids

We spooned our cherry pie filling into the center of each pie dough section.

Cherry Hand Pies

I’m so glad I cooked the filling first, so it gelled together and didn’t run all over the place when we were assembling these.

Cherry Hand Pies

We folded the dough over the filling and crimped the edges with a fork (or, as with Daphne, poked little fork holes all over).

Cherry Hand Pies

Maia brushed our hand pies with the egg wash.

Cherry Hand Pies

And Daphne sprinkled sugar on the top of each.

Cherry Hand Pies

We baked the hand pies at 425 F for 10 minutes then reduced the heat to 350 and baked for another 5 minutes in the case of these smaller pies and another 10 or so minutes in the case of some larger ones we made.

Our cherry hand pies (and many of our family cooking efforts) are rather ragtaggle and certainly not pinterest perfect, but they are so fun to make and utterly delicious. It’s hard to go wrong with hand pies (or bread dough shapes). Even the ones that Daphne thoroughly cut and poked were wonderful.

Here’s the printable cherry hand pies recipe ::

Print
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Cherry Hand Pies

  • Author: Jean Van’t Hul
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

Scale
  1. 2 cans tart cherries in water (I buy Oregon Fruit Products Red Tart Cherries which are often with the canned fruit rather than in the baking aisle of the grocery store)
  2. 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  3. 3/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  4. 1/8 teaspoon salt
  5. 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
  6. Pie dough
  7. 1 egg, beaten with a 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

  1. Combine cherry pie filling ingredients in a large, heavy-bottomed pan and bring to a bubble over medium low heat. Stir frequently and let simmer until the mixture gels a bit. Set aside to cool.
  2. Roll out pie dough and cut into 6 x 6 inch sections (approximate is fine!).
  3. Spoon about 1/4 cup of cooled cherry pie filling onto the center of each pie dough section.
  4. Fold dough in half over the filling, and use a fork to crimp the edges closed.
  5. Place hand pies on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, brush the tops of the hand pies with the egg wash then sprinkle with sugar.
  6. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350 F and bake for another 10 minutes or so until the crust is nicely golden and crispy.

More Delicious Hand Pies to Try

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An awesome recipe for cherry hand pies! (And some baking with kids reality photos...)

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