Put Heart-Shaped Hand Pies On the Menu This V-Day
If your Valentine loves toaster pastries like ooey, gooey Pop Tarts—and let’s get real, who doesn’t?—surprise your S.O. with the ultimate Valentine’s Day breakfast: strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry heart-shaped hand pies. This trio of berries makes for a colorful and tasty variety, but cherries, blueberries, or even apples would work too!
These berry hand pies are the perfect homemade substitute for store bought strudel—without any preservatives or trans fats, to boot! Making the pastry from scratch is infinitely better than using frozen pie crust and trust us: you won’t believe how easy it is when you make it in your own food processor.
Strawberry, Blackberry, and Raspberry Heart-Shaped Hand Pies
(Adapted from Bon Appétit)
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
– 1 1/2 cups AP Flour
– 1/2 cup very cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 1/4 tsp kosher salt
– 1/4 cup ice water
For the filling and topping:
– 1/2 cup each of blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries
– 3 tablespoons sugar
– 1 tablespoon lemon juice
– 1 teaspoon lemon zest
– 1 egg
Instructions:
1. To make the dough: in a food processor, add flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse to combine. Add cold butter and pulse until butter pieces are the size of peas.
2. With the machine running, slowly add ice water until dough comes together in clumps (add more ice water if needed).
3. Turn out the dough, form into a flat disk and wrap with plastic. Chill for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Place berries in three separate bowls. Divide sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest equally among the three bowls. Stir to combine.
6. Beat an egg with a teaspoon of water very well in a separate bowl. This will be your egg wash to seal the pastry. Set aside.
7. Sprinkle a large counter top with flour. Turn out dough and roll until you have a rectangle approximately 15 x12 inches. Using a paring knife or a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out 12 equal sized hearts (this will depend on your preference/cookie cutter size).
8. To assemble the pastries: add a small amount of berries to half of the heart shaped pastries, about 2 tablespoons each, leaving a border around the sides. Using your finger, dab egg wash along the edges of the dough. Take another heart shaped pastry without filling and place it over the border, sealing the edges with your fingers or the tines of a fork.
9. Transfer finished hand pie to a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
10. Brush tops of hand pies with egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar. This will create a beautiful shiny pastry.
11. Bake hand pies for approximately 35-45 minutes, until tops are golden brown and some juice has oozed out.
12. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
As we said up top, making dough from scratch is an essential first step in our eyes—it just tastes better and as you can see, it's so simple. Add your ingredients into a food processor and pulse, adding enough cold water to make the dough look clumpy (the one instance where clumpy = good!). Then mold your dough into a flat disc and chill for at least two hours or up to three days. That's right—you can totally make the dough days ahead, which means these treats are party prep-friendly.
Once your dough is rolled out, it's time to cut out your heart shapes. By now, you've got to have a heart-shaped cookie cutter handy, right? (If you don't, try Target—I found a heart-shaped mold there that works great!) Add a few tablespoons of your soaked berries to on half of the heart shaped pastries, dab on a bit of egg wash along the edges, and then add on the other half as the top. Use fork prongs to crimp the edges like a pro—and be sure to cut some slits into your crust for the steam to escape!—then brush egg wash all over those puppies.
The egg wash will add some serious polish to your baked pastries (look at ’em shine!), not to mention help them turn a lip-smacking golden brown. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 35-45 minutes, until the berry goodness starts to ooze out of the pies. Sounds so good, right? Are you ready for the after pic?
There you have it: the most crave-worthy hand pies around! That jammy filling looks irresistible, especially when it’s stuffed in a flaky homemade dough. The good news is you can eat them almost straight away! Enjoy your heart shaped hand pies warm or—if you can resist—at room temperature.
What heart-shaped treats are you making this Valentine’s Day? Share your recipes with us in the comments below.
