This week Chelle and I decided to make another dessert together. What can I say, we both have a major sweet tooth, and desserts are so much fun! I had some good friends over for dinner Monday night. I made spicy shredded pork tacos again at Ben’s request (they are his new love), and I thought these would be a nice way to finish off the meal. I have made hand pies once before and they were really great, but these were AMAZING! The dough is just incredible – super flaky, light, and buttery. I did a peach filling but I think they would be delicious with almost anything inside!
The process for making this dough is definitely on the fussy side, with many steps of chilling, cutting, chilling, mixing, chilling, etc. and on and on. But, it is totally worth it because the end result is so light and flaky. I halved the recipe and cut much larger rounds of dough than the original recipe recommends since I wanted these to be bigger than just a couple of bites. I didn’t have bourbon on hand so I just added a splash of spiced rum and it was fine. I also didn’t have any sanding sugar and really didn’t want to buy any just for this recipe, so I just sprinkled with regular granulated sugar. Not as cute and decorative, but it does give a bit of added sweetness. I cannot wait to make this recipe again and play around with other fillings. Yum!
Peach Hand Pies
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ cup sour cream
4 tsp. fresh lemon juice
½ cup ice water
For the filling:
2 lb. peaches
¼ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp. bourbon
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tbsp. water, for egg wash
coarse sanding sugar, for decoration
Directions:
To make the pastry, in a bowl combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and cut it into the flour using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water, and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. (If preparing ahead of time, the dough can be stored at this point for up to 1 month in the freezer.)
Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to 1/8” thickness. Using a round biscuit cutter (or tracing around a circular piece of cardstock) cut out circles of dough in your desired size. Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.
To make the filling, peel and chop the peaches into small pieces (about ½ -inch dice). Mix them with the flour, sugar, and salt. Add bourbon and vanilla if desired and mix well.
Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, and let stand at room temperature until just pliable, about 2-3 minutes. Spoon filling into the center of each dough round, making sure not to overfill, and to leave enough of an edge to properly seal the dough. Quickly brush the edge of the dough with a bit of cold water, fold in half to cover the filling. Seal the edges and make a decorative border by pressing the edges of the dough together with the tines of a fork. Repeat the process with remaining dough rounds. Place filled hand pies back into the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375°. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, cut a small slit in each, and lightly brush the tops of the pies with egg wash. Sprinkle sanding sugar generously over the pies, and place in the oven to bake. Bake until pies are golden brown and just slightly cracked, about 20-25 minutes. Remove the pies from the oven and let stand to cool slightly before serving.
Source: adapted from Smitten Kitchen
