First Hand Pies

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skilletlicker

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Mentioned a while back wanting to add hand pies to the menu. Got a round tuit this afternoon. Crust is just Pillsbury biscuit but the apple pie filling is homemade and I'm counting it as a pretty good first try.
IMG_20210918_145416016.jpg
Next up meat filling and scratch crust. Would like to try Helen Rennie's Pirozhki but am more than a little bit intimidated by it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOen7VmSNPU
 
looks like you hit a home run to me! Good job.

Did the taste meet your expectations ?
and what would you change ( if anything) now that you've got them under your belt ?
 
Thanks Larry. To be honest I was a little disappointed. I followed a recipe for the filling to the letter adding ¼ cup each white and brown sugar to a quart of diced apples. It made eight pies with enough filling leftover for at least four more. This was the first added sugar I've used in a couple years at least and the nearest thing to junk food I've eaten in a long time. Guess I've lost my taste for it because I thought they were almost sickening sweet. To do it over I'd add couple of tablespoons instead of half a cup. Maybe leave the sugar out altogether and add some raisins or dates.

Not a big fan of Pillsbury biscuits either. Don't eat much bread and when I do it's whole wheat. Helen Rennie's recipe looks pretty good to me and think I'll try it using 100% whole wheat. Ms Rennie wouldn't approve nor would almost any other cooks I know about but I guess that's the road I'm on and like I've said before, I've kinda acquired a taste for my own cooking. Nobody else at the table to answer to so might as well follow my own arrow.
 
Sometimes, when I have some leftovers that aren't enough to really make another meal, yet they are just too good to toss...I'll make them into savory hand pies. The last ones I did was with leftover chicken curry and Indian spiced rice.

Truth be known, I made the curry with every intention of using the leftovers to make some hand pies. Inspired by a pierogi shop that comes to our town as a pop-up shop, every now and again. Far too long of lines for something that has been frozen for the trip!

Anyway, I used puff pastry and a little contraption from Amazon. They were sooooooo good!

IMG_4766 (2).jpg
 
Mentioned a while back wanting to add hand pies to the menu. Got a round tuit this afternoon. Crust is just Pillsbury biscuit but the apple pie filling is homemade and I'm counting it as a pretty good first try.
View attachment 48887
Next up meat filling and scratch crust. Would like to try Helen Rennie's Pirozhki but am more than a little bit intimidated by it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOen7VmSNPU

Those look really great. Nice job!:chef:

Remember, I put a tutorial on DC for homemade pie crust, with step by step instructions, if you aren't already experienced with pie crust - https://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f40/perfect-pie-105984.html

Hope this helps.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Thanks Larry. To be honest I was a little disappointed. I followed a recipe for the filling to the letter adding ¼ cup each white and brown sugar to a quart of diced apples. It made eight pies with enough filling leftover for at least four more. This was the first added sugar I've used in a couple years at least and the nearest thing to junk food I've eaten in a long time. Guess I've lost my taste for it because I thought they were almost sickening sweet. To do it over I'd add couple of tablespoons instead of half a cup. Maybe leave the sugar out altogether and add some raisins or dates.

Not a big fan of Pillsbury biscuits either. Don't eat much bread and when I do it's whole wheat. Helen Rennie's recipe looks pretty good to me and think I'll try it using 100% whole wheat. Ms Rennie wouldn't approve nor would almost any other cooks I know about but I guess that's the road I'm on and like I've said before, I've kinda acquired a taste for my own cooking. Nobody else at the table to answer to so might as well follow my own arrow.

I have a recipe for 100% wholewheat pie crust. I worked on a regular pie crust recipe. I tweaked the recipe until I was fairly happy with the crust. If you want, I can post it.
 
Please do. :)

When I first started making wholewheat pie crusts, they were very tough. You needed a steak knife to cut them when you were eating a piece of the pie. I may have taken it a little too far in the other direction. I think that using all purpose wholewheat flour, rather than the pastry flour might fix that, or adding some wholewheat bread flour to the pastry flour.

Here's a link to the recipe on CMT: https://www.copymethat.com/r/dPy2WGwbG/wholewheat-pie-crust/
 
Thanks taxlady.

If my math is right one 6" circle of crust made with lard and Kroger whole wheat white flour would be 475 calories, 7g protein, 32 g carbs, and 34g fat. Not as bad as I first thought but still a substantial caloric investment. Probably moves the hand pie out of a regular menu item to a special treat.

For comparison, a Pillsbury Grands biscuit is 180 calories, 3g protein, 27g carbs, 7g fat.
Large slice commercial whole wheat bread: 108 cal, 5.4g protein, 16g carbs, 1.5g fat.
 
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I´ll give you two more ideas for your pies.
The first is a Cornish Pasty - basically, a hand - eaten "pie" filled with rump steak, potatoes and a bit of onion.
The second is an Argentinian Empanada - stuffed with minced meat and seasoned with olives, boiled egg, raisins and herbs.
As for the pastry - shortcrust is what is needed, but it´s so easy to make ( and so much cheaper), that I always make it myself - by hand. Why is it east to make? Simple ingredients - 200 gms ( or 2 cups) flour, 100 gms ( 1 cup) butter and/or shortening, pinch of salt, cold water. Mix the flour and butter together with the tips of your fingers until the fat is incorporated - about 3 minutes. Should be like breadcrumbs. Add ice cold water bit by bit until the dough pulls aways from the sides of the bowl - about 2 minutes. Do NOT knead the dough - it´s pastry, not a pizza. Put the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow it to firm up.
 
Those pies look great! Sorry the taste didn't match.

Instead of using biscuit dough, I'd recommend some pie crust. Pillsbury makes a ready to use pie crust. It's not as good as homemade but serviceable.

If the filling was too sweet, i'd look for another recipe.
 
I´ll give you two more ideas for your pies.
The first is a Cornish Pasty - basically, a hand - eaten "pie" filled with rump steak, potatoes and a bit of onion.
The second is an Argentinian Empanada - stuffed with minced meat and seasoned with olives, boiled egg, raisins and herbs.
As for the pastry - shortcrust is what is needed, but it´s so easy to make ( and so much cheaper), that I always make it myself - by hand. Why is it east to make? Simple ingredients - 200 gms ( or 2 cups) flour, 100 gms ( 1 cup) butter and/or shortening, pinch of salt, cold water. Mix the flour and butter together with the tips of your fingers until the fat is incorporated - about 3 minutes. Should be like breadcrumbs. Add ice cold water bit by bit until the dough pulls aways from the sides of the bowl - about 2 minutes. Do NOT knead the dough - it´s pastry, not a pizza. Put the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow it to firm up.

Cornish Pasties where I'm from had the short crust dough, but were filled with a mixture of coarse grind beef, diced potato, onion, and rutabaga, with the handle of dough, rather than the top seam. A little research into the history, and I found that Cornish wives often put a dough divider so that the savory filling took 2/3ds of the pasty, with 1/3 being used for some type of fruit pie filling, so that their miner husbands would get a meal, and desert in the same pasty. I make my pasties that way. The savory side is seasoned simply, with salt, pepper, and garlic. If the pasty is completely savory, it is served with your choice of brown gravy, or catsup. You can't travel through Michigan's U.P. without finding numerous pasty shops. We're kinda famous for them. My mother owned a bakery with her brother. They made amazing pasties.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I´ll give you two more ideas for your pies.
The first is a Cornish Pasty - basically, a hand - eaten "pie" filled with rump steak, potatoes and a bit of onion.
The second is an Argentinian Empanada - stuffed with minced meat and seasoned with olives, boiled egg, raisins and herbs.
As for the pastry - shortcrust is what is needed, but it´s so easy to make ( and so much cheaper), that I always make it myself - by hand. Why is it east to make? Simple ingredients - 200 gms ( or 2 cups) flour, 100 gms ( 1 cup) butter and/or shortening, pinch of salt, cold water. Mix the flour and butter together with the tips of your fingers until the fat is incorporated - about 3 minutes. Should be like breadcrumbs. Add ice cold water bit by bit until the dough pulls aways from the sides of the bowl - about 2 minutes. Do NOT knead the dough - it´s pastry, not a pizza. Put the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow it to firm up.
karadekoolaid and Andy are pointing to a place where the branch divides on this hand pie tree; pastry crust versus bread dough. Reckon I'll crawl out a ways on the dough branch. Calzones and Pirozhkis will be models. Pupusas, gorditas, even burritos and pitas are related ideas.
 
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The great thing is, you can try both and decide which you like better. Which you prefer may depend on the filling.
 
karadekoolaid and Andy are pointing to a place where the branch divides on this hand pie tree; pastry crust versus bread dough. Reckon I'll crawl out a ways on the dough branch. Calzones and Pirozhkis will be models. Pupusas, gorditas, even burritos and pitas are related ideas.

I was wondering about that. I was thinking that the bread type crusts would hold up better to being eaten out of hand. Bread type crusts would have far less fat too.
 
Cornish Pasties where I'm from had the short crust dough, but were filled with a mixture of coarse grind beef, diced potato, onion, and rutabaga, with the handle of dough, rather than the top seam. A little research into the history, and I found that Cornish wives often put a dough divider so that the savory filling took 2/3ds of the pasty, with 1/3 being used for some type of fruit pie filling, so that their miner husbands would get a meal, and desert in the same pasty. I make my pasties that way. The savory side is seasoned simply, with salt, pepper, and garlic. If the pasty is completely savory, it is served with your choice of brown gravy, or catsup. You can't travel through Michigan's U.P. without finding numerous pasty shops. We're kinda famous for them. My mother owned a bakery with her brother. They made amazing pasties.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

I hear you, chief - and personally, I much prefer a version like yours, with minced beef rather than chunks of rump.
It´s also fscinating to hear that there´s a Michigan version, given the numbers of Cornishmen who emigrated to the US in the early 1800s.
True Cornish Pasties are now a protected species:cool:; protected by the UK government as a PGI... bit like DOC for champagne, Balsamic vinegar, etc, etc. Official ingredients are:
sliced or diced potato
• swede
• onion
• (vegetable content must not be less than 25% of the whole
pasty)
• diced or minced beef (meat content must not be less than 12.5%
of the whole pasty)
• seasoning to taste, primarily salt and pepper.
The pastry could be short crust, rough puff or puff.Cornish pasties go back to the 13th century and are mentioned in Robin Hood chronicles, Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Personally, I think that as long as you use the basic ingredients, you can add a bit of this or a bit of that to suit your taste ( I mention this at the risk of forever being banned from Cornwall:LOL::LOL:). After all, if it tastes good to you, that´s the most important thing!
 
karadekoolaid and Andy are pointing to a place where the branch divides on this hand pie tree; pastry crust versus bread dough. Reckon I'll crawl out a ways on the dough branch. Calzones and Pirozhkis will be models. Pupusas, gorditas, even burritos and pitas are related ideas.
I see your point, SL - although I´d draw a line at pupusas ( cornmeal, more like a Venezuelan arepa) burritos and gorditas, which are more like a sandwich to me.
Anyway - looks like you´ve got some ideas to keep you busy! And since you´re going down the "dough" branch, why not try Lebanese sfeehas and fatayers ( bread dough stuffed with meat or swiss chard) and even this Indonesian delight I came across a year or so ago:
https://asianfoodnetwork.com/en/recipes/cuisine/indonesian/panada.html
Sort of a mini-calzone stuffed with spicy tuna. They were delicious!
 
I was wondering about that. I was thinking that the bread type crusts would hold up better to being eaten out of hand. Bread type crusts would have far less fat too.

Right. I've come to evaluate recipes on the quality of the body's fuel and on how much enjoyment they provide in return for their caloric investment.
Fun facts:
  • Proteins and carbohydrates contain four calories per gram.
  • Each gram of fat equals nine calories.
 
MMMMM those look delicious!

I'm a fan of tart over sweet, so all our apples and pears are sugar free. We can always add sugar or salt later if we must.


Taxlady, we've found whole wheat pastry flour and whole wheat flour. I think Bob's Red Mill carries both, and Azure Standard as well.
 
...I followed a recipe for the filling to the letter adding ¼ cup each white and brown sugar to a quart of diced apples. It made eight pies with enough filling leftover for at least four more. This was the first added sugar I've used in a couple years at least and the nearest thing to junk food I've eaten in a long time. Guess I've lost my taste for it because I thought they were almost sickening sweet. To do it over I'd add couple of tablespoons instead of half a cup. Maybe leave the sugar out altogether and add some raisins or dates...
I have learned to never add sugar to any fruit dessert recipe until I've tasted the fruit. That means when making apple pie I sample a slice of apple from each one I use. Many fruits are naturally sweet (I'm looking at you guys, cherries) and need just enough sugar to pull juice from them. While some apple pies will call for as much as 1 3/4 cups of sugar for five apples, I've added as little as a couple of tablespoons only, plus a squeeze of lemon. I don't think you can skip sugar completely, though. It's needed to make sure the fruit doesn't dry out when baking.
 
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