Apple Hand Pies are miniature pies with flaky crust and stuffed with the most delicious sweet cinnamon apple filling. They may be served warm, room temperature or cold. Pick them up and eat them with your hands, or warm them up in the microwave and top them with vanilla ice cream or salted caramel sauce.
These homemade, individual hand pies are the perfect fall dessert. They’re a mini version of the classic apple pie, and they’re less messy than making apple pie bars. A hand pie has a little more crust to enjoy than having a slice of pie, so you’ll be happy to know that the crust for these apple hand pies is sweet, flaky, buttery and delicious.
Ingredients Needed:
- Baking Basics: All purpose flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Apples: I use Granny Smith apples for these hand pies.
- Shortening: This is the key to making the crust super flaky.
- Butter: A little butter added to the crust gives it a buttery flavor. I used unsalted butter since I add salt the the dough.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: This adds some sweetness to the dough.
- Milk: This helps bring the dough together.
- Spices: You’ll use a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
How to make Apple Hand Pies:
The complete, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here’s a brief overview.
- Prepare the dough. You’ll use a food processor to mix it and get it to come together to the right texture.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and rest it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Prepare the apple filling in a skillet. Then let it cool.
- Preheat the oven. Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 4-inch round. Place each round on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the edges with egg wash. Spoon filling into the middle fold the dough over. Crimp the edges with a fork.
- Brush the hand pies with the egg wash, and sprinkle with chunky sugar. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool.
Recipe Tips
- For a flavor variation, use a combination of a couple of different kinds of apples: Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady or Fuji.
- Be sure to cut the apples into small, uniform chunks. That will make it easier to fill the hand pies, and it will help with even cooking.
- The filling for the hand pies may be prepared a couple of days in advance of making the pies. Just keep it in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
- If you prefer to roll out the pie dough and cut rounds, you can certainly do it that way. Use a 3.5 to 4-inch cutter. You can also cut 3-inch rounds and use two of them to put together and make a small, round hand pie.
- Crimping the edges with a fork helps keep the filling from leaking out.
- Cut slits in the top of each pie, if you’d like to let steam escape.
Variations:
Use any kind of filling for these hand pies. Try using blueberry, strawberry, cherry or pumpkin. You can even use canned pie filling. Chunky jam or preserves will also work as a filling.
How to store Hand Pies:
Place cooled hand pies in a sealed container or zip baggie and store at room temperature for up to 2 days. Store them in the same way in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
To freeze hand pies, let them cool and then freeze them on a baking sheet. Then wrap each frozen pie individually in plastic wrap and then in foil. Drop the wrapped pies in a large freezer zip baggie. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat: warm them in a 350°F oven until heated through and the crust is crisp.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe:
- Apple hand pies are an easy grab and go dessert. There is no fork needed!
- It’s an apple pie that you can have all to yourself!
- The crust is amazing on these mini apple pies.
Apple Hand Pies
Ingredients
HAND PIE DOUGH:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons frozen shortening
- 2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
FILLING:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 large green apples, peeled & chopped into smallish chunks
- ⅓ cup granulated white sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
THE REST:
- 1 large egg, whisked with 2 tablespoons water
- turbinado or sparkling sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
PREPARE THE HAND PIE DOUGH:
- In a food processor, pulse together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the shortening and butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and condensed milk. With the processor running slowly add the milk mixture and continue to pulse until the dough just comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Use the plastic wrap to turn the dough over a few times, until it no longer has dry bits of flour visible and is smooth. It's important the dough be rather smooth- otherwise, when you roll it out for your pies, the dough will crack. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes before using.
PREPARE THE FILLING:
- Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the apples, sugar and salt. Saute and stir for about 2 minutes.
- Add the water and spices. Let simmer for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Then let cool completely before using as a filling for the hand pies.
ASSEMBLE THE HAND PIES:
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Divide the dough evenly into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 4-inch round and place the rounds on a parchment-lined sheet pan. With a pastry brush, brush the egg wash along the outside edge of the dough rounds. Place 2 tablespoons of filling onto the middle of each round. Fold the dough over, creating a half moon, and seal the pastries by pressing gently along the edges of each with the tines of a fork. Brush the outsides of the pastries with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado or sparkling sugar.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the hand pies to cool completely.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
