Easy Cranberry Hand Pies
These easy cranberry hand pies are individual little pastries filled with cranberry sauce--the perfect buttery, flakey, no hassle, addition to your Thanksgiving menu!
Servings: 5
Equipment
- Rolling pin, 3" round biscuit cutter or large lid
Ingredients
Cranberry Sauce- yields 1 cup
- 1 ½ cups cranberries
- ¾ cup water
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- ½ orange zest + juice
- ¼ lemon- juiced
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- ½ tsp vanilla
Pie
- 1 pre-made pie crust or homemade
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp turbinado sugar
Instructions
- For this recipe, the cranberry sauce needs to be chilled, so I would recommend making it the night before you plan to bake the hand pies. To make the cranberry sauce, add all the ingredients, minus the vanilla, to a small saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Cook on medium high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After ten minutes, turn off the heat, stir in the vanilla, then transfer the cranberry sauce to a small bowl.
- Once the cranberry sauce has cooled, cover and refrigerate until cold.
- To make the hand pies, follow the directions for thawing your pre-made pie crust. I struggle with pie crust and even managed to thaw it wrong, so I won't be giving advice on that front.
- Once the pie crust is pliable and ready to bake, roll it between two sheets of parchment paper until it is roughly half the original thickness.
- Use a 3" round biscuit cutter or the top of a large mason jar--my lid was about 3½"--and cut as many circles as you can, keeping in mind, you need a top and a bottom for each pie. I was able to get 5 pies out of my crust, 10 circles total. Carefully transfer 5 circles of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Crack the egg and whisk well, then brush the outer ½" of each of the 5 circles with the egg wash.
- Scoop one heaping tablespoon of cranberry sauce into the middle of the five circles. DO NOT OVERFILL.
- Place a top circle of dough on each filled circle and gently press down with your fingertips to seal. Press the tines of a fork around the edges to create a pretty pattern, as well as to seal them completely.
- Brush the tops of each hand pie with the egg wash, followed by a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. Cut a small X on the top of each pie to release steam.
- Refrigerate the entire tray for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Bake the hand pies for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown. If some cranberry sauce bubbles up through the steam cuts, no worries!
- Allow the pies to cool for 5 minutes before enjoying.