I’m on a mission to make the most of the fruit that we buy each week. My family LOVES fruit, but sometimes we don’t do a good job of eating it before it starts to get old and sad. There are a few recipes that I love to make when I find that I have a lot of sad looking fruit on my counter. Hand pies are just one recipe. Another great recipe for making the most of your sad (but still usable) fruit is my apple cake.
When my son was starting a new school he was so nervous. I felt so bad that I made him PB&J hand pies all week! Of course I’m sure that the love I put into the hand pies made his move to a new school easier, or it could be the fact that they were delicious.
This hand pie recipe is great for making fruit hand pies but you can get creative, too. I love a PB&J hand pie and so do my kids!
For this recipe you can easily use a store bought pie crust to cut down on time, but I like to make my own pie crust. Good Lord, almighty, I hate going to the grocery store and I will make most things from scratch in order to avoid it, including pie crust. If you make your own pie crust it will also save a few bucks.
For the purposes of making the most of your sad fruit, you can easily use a store-bought pie crust. If you want something more like a turnover, you can use puff-pastry dough, as well.
In this recipe I’m using spiced pears, but I like to make hand pies using any fruit (well, maybe not bananas).
Spiced Pear Hand Pies
4-6
servings15
minutes30
minutesThere's something special about a hand pie. Hand pies are the perfect sweet treat, especially for little kids. Experiment and see which flavors you like the most.
Ingredients
2-3 pears, peeled and diced
pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp arrowroot powder
Directions
- Peel and dice the pears
- Add pumpkin pie spice and sugar
- Add arrowroot
- Gently toss the pears until combined
- Roll out either store-bought pie crust or homemade pie crust into small squares. I use sizes from about 5 inches up to 8 inches. Remember, these are hand pies, and they're supposed to fit in your hand.
- Put a small amount of fruit in the center of the hand pie, then press the edges together. You could actually use egg between the edges here. I'm avoiding eggs, so I didn't do this step.
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until the crust is brown and toasty.
