Can I be honest here? I've been avoiding posting a cherry pie recipe. I know, I know, my name is Sweet Sherry Pie. But guys, the phrase "easy as pie" is a total lie. Pie is hard, and when I share a real pie recipe with you I need it to be absolutely perfect. But in the meantime, do you know what's easy? These shortcut cherry hand pies. They are so simple, technically still home made, and just as delicious as a pie you made from scratch.
So Where Do We Start?
We will make these shortcut cherry hand pies with simple, high quality ingredients.
- Pre-Made Pie Dough
- High quality fruit jam.
The Importance of Ingredients
Because there is such a limited amount of things in these short cut cherry hand pies, our choices matter. Store bought pie dough is one of those things that can be very hit or miss. As the basis of our recipe we want to be sure to invest in a good one, It will be worth it to spend that extra 50 cents you would have saved on a store brand product. I usually use Pillsbury for this. It will come in two pre-rolled circles, and you can cut your desired shapes. I got about seven 3 inch hearts from one circle.
The star of these shortcut cherry hand pies is obviously the cherry filling, and I beg you to make a good decision about what kind you use. I almost exclusively use Bonne Maman when I need jam. Their products are amazing.
Note: I would seriously avoid using anything labeled "canned pie filling" They are usually filled with tons of sugar and very little fruit.
Assembly
Putting together these hand pies is pretty easy, but there are just a couple key things which you will want to keep in mind.
- Hand Pies take less filling than you might imagine. It's usually just about heaping table spoon in each one.
- You must seal your your edges with an egg wash, otherwise the dough will separate and your filling with ooze out.
Shortcut Cherry Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 1 package Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust
- 1 Jar Bonne Maman Cherry Preserves
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°.
- Mix one egg with two tablespoons of water until combined. Set Aside.
- Allow the Pie Crust to come to room temperature before unrolling. Next, with a cookie cutter of your choice shape, cut the dough into an even amount of pieces.
- For one half of your dough pieces, fill the center with two heaping tablespoons of Cherry Preserves.
- Lay one pie of the remaining dough unto each hand pie. Brush the ends with egg wash, and then crimp the two half together with a fork. Make a small X in the center of each pie to prevent bursting while baking.
- Brush the hand pies with remaining egg wash, and sprinkle with course sugar.
- Bake at 350° for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Notes
- These pies can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container for 2 days.
- Once assembled, unbaked pies can be frozen individually first, and then consolidated into a zip lock bag and frozen for 6 months.
- Frozen pies can be baked from frozen at the time and temperature listed above.
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