Easy Apple Hand Pies with a Maple Glaze
A "healthy" dessert.
Ingredients
Pie Crust Dough
- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 6 Tablespoons cold, organic, unsalted, grass-fed butter, cut into cubes
- 6 Tablespoons olive oil, chilled in freezer up to an hour
- 2-3 Tablespoons organic maple syrup (depending on how sweet you want your crust)
- 2-4 Tablespoons ice water
- 1 finger-pinch of salt
Filling
- 1 medium sweet apple (fuji, ambrosia, gala, honeycrisp, braeburn)
- 1 medium sweet, not overly ripe, pear (d'angou, bosch, comice, seckel, starkrimson- bartlett can be too mushy)
- ½ teaspoon dried ginger
- 1 teaspoon tapioca flour
Maple Glaze
- 6 large, pitted dates (I used medjool)
- 4 Tablespoons full fat canned/boxed coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 finger-pinch of salt
- Warm water, as needed for consistency
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven 375°F or 190°C
Pie Crust Dough
- In a large bowl, combine spelt flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, briskly whisk together chilled olive oil, maple syrup, and 2 Tablespoons cold water.
- Add cold, cubed butter to flour and use a fork to incorporate. Texture will be crumbly. Alternatively, pulse a few times in a food processor.
- Add oil and maple syrup mix to flour and combine until it just comes together, either using a fork or food processor. You want the dough rough with visible chunks of butter. Add more water by Tablespoon as needed. This dough will be a little more moist than traditional dough but still be sure to NOT OVERWORK IT!
- Form dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge.
Filling
- Coarsely grate apple and pear either on a box grater or in a food processor with the proper fitted disk.
- Sprinkle with ginger and tapioca flour and stir to combine. If your filling is super juicy, either pour off some of the juice and drink it-or-soak it up with some paper towels. The tapioca flour should help. Add a splash of lemon juice to avoid discoloration while you roll out the dough.
Method
- Place chilled dough on a clean, dry, floured surface, and cover with a piece of parchment paper.
- With the parchment between the dough and the floured rolling pin, roll out dough as evenly as possible to ⅛ inch thick. Check frequently to see if the dough is sticking to your work surface or parchment. Add flour as necessary.
- Using a biscuit cutter, or large mason jar lid as I did (all I had..), cut as many circles as you can. Pardon my stone-cold pasty pastry hands
- Gather scraps, roll out again, and cut more circles. You don't want to gather the scraps more than one or two times as the dough will become tough.
- In the center of each dough circle, place about 1 Tablespoon of filling with about a ½ inch perimeter.
- Fold dough over filling. Because the filling is moist already, you will not need to add any additional water to the edges to form a seal.
- Crimp edges with a fork. Repeat for all 12 hand pies.
- Place hand pies on a parchment lined backing sheet.
- Puncture 2-3 little slits in pies to allow steam to escape.
- Optional-brush with egg wash (just a whisked egg). I like the golden color and sheen from the egg wash.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, checking every 15 and rotating as needed. The apple hand pies are done when slightly golden.
Maple Glaze
- Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor.
- Drizzle in warm water as needed to thin out consistency.
- Now, gleefully dunk your homemade, super easy apple hand pies into your glorious glaze. You deserve it.
Notes
It is important that the olive oil be chilled in order to produce a flaky crust. Whisking together all the wet ingredients, prior to incorporating into the flour, is essential.
Recipe by SOULBEET at https://soul-beet.com/easy-apple-hand-pies/