Blueberry Hand Pies
Made with fresh summer blueberries and a tender flakey crust, these Blueberry Hand Pies are the perfect summer treat! Double the recipe if you’re serving a crowd!
Hello friends! Today I’m doing something really fun, and I can’t wait to share it! I’ve teamed up with 2 of my most favourite blogging friends and we’re sharing some delicious recipes with you.
Pretty Dirty Cottage
But first, a little backstory to it all. I’ve been attending Christmas in November at the Jasper Park Lodge for years now…it’s one of my most favourite foodie experiences ever. And this past year was definitely a highlight for me, as I found myself in the lounge, cocktail in hand, brainstorming delicious collaboration ideas with my friends Nik and Carol, the team behind Weekend at the Cottage, and Julie Van Rosendaal, the author of Dirty Food and creator of Dinner With Julie. Safe to say, when a group of foodie friends set to chatting, something deliciously wonderful is bound to happen. I hope you’re ready to get pretty and dirty at the cottage! 😉
Pretty Dirty Cottage is a six-recipe series where the three of us create and share each other’s recipes. Today Julie is baking my lovely Lavender Honey Cake, Nik is baking Julie’s stellar Gooey Cinnamon Buns (which I can personally say are delicious…I’ve made them many times!), and I am sharing Nik’s Strawberry Hand Pies, but I’m using blueberries instead! So good. If you’re not following Weekend at the Cottage or Dinner with Julie, make sure you bookmark and subscribe to their delicious sites!
When Nik shared his delicious Strawberry Hand Pies recipe with me, I couldn’t wait to try them! Hand Pies are the cutest. I decided to try something a little different so I made them with fresh summer blueberries instead of strawberries. So now you have 2 tasty hand pie options to try…strawberry or blueberry…SO good.
Hand Pies are such a fun and delicious way to make pie. I love that each little pie is an individual serving, which makes them especially great for parties and potlucks…they’re so much easier to serve! And they taste as amazing as classic blueberry pie…they’re just a mini version of greatness. These Blueberry Hand Pies are loaded with flavour! Sweet and tangy blueberries wrapped up in a tender and flakey crust, these pies are a must make. I hope you try them!
How to Make Hand Pies
Making hand pies really is as simple as cutting circles out of pie crust dough, filling them with delicious pie filling, and topping them off with another circle of pie dough. Then you seal the edges, cut in vents, brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and bake until golden. Don’t be afraid of the process…it’s really easy, I promise!
The key is to not overfill the pies, and to make sure the edges are sealed well. Even after doing these things, the pie filling will still likely bubble out of the vents, but don’t worry! Pie filling that bubbles it’s way out of a crust just means it’s bursting with flavour!
Why I Cook the Blueberry Pie Filling:
You may notice that I have cooked the blueberry pie filling before I add it to the hand pies. I prefer to cook the filling first so that it isn’t runny, and is more like a jam. You can even eat the cooked filling like a dip…yum! You can see what this dip looks like in the picture below (it’s in the bowl)…I served it with little pie crust cookie dippers.
Blueberry Pie Dip with Pie Crust Cookie Cutter:
This blueberry pie filling is so good you can even eat it like a dip! This is a great idea if you end up with a little extra cooked pie filling that doesn’t fit into your pie. Just use any extra pie crust pieces that you trimmed off your pies, and bake them to make pie crust cookie dippers. I use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes in the crust, then I brush them with an egg wash or milk, sprinkle generously with cinnamon and sugar and bake them on a cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden. This makes a fun dessert!
Blueberry Hand Pie Recipe Tips:
- Blueberries: You can use fresh or frozen blueberries for this pie recipe. I used fresh berries.
- Cooked Pie Filling: I prefer to cook the pie filling before baking the pies.
- Thickener: Make sure to thoroughly mix the sugar and cornstarch before you add it to the simmering blueberries. Mixing these 2 ingredients well will ensure that the cornstarch does not clump.
- Pie Crust: Yes, you read that right, this pie crust recipe has sour cream in it! Nik’s addition of sour cream makes the pastry rich and flakey! He also likes to add a bit of lemon zest to the crust which I think is genius!
- Pies don’t have to be perfect! Don’t worry if the pie filling comes out of the vents. Pie filling that bubbles it’s way out of a crust just means it’s bursting with flavour!
- Egg Wash: Nik recommends using and egg wash with milk to brush the tops and I concur, as this mixture makes the tops nice and golden.
- Don’t forget the sugar topping! I always add a sprinkling of sugar to my pies before I bake them…I just love the extra sweet crunch. When Nik made his Strawberry Hand Pies he dusted them lightly with icing sugar after they were done baking and they look lovely!
- Extra Pie Filling: If you end up with extra pie filling, read below for some delicious ideas!
More Recipe Ideas for Blueberry Pie Filling:
- Blueberry Hand Pies of course! Get the recipe below…
- Use this blueberry filling instead of cherry for these Cheesecake Cupcakes.
- You can use this blueberry pie filling for this Easy No-Bake Cheesecake Dessert
- Serve this blueberry pie filling with baked pie crust cookies/dippers (as shown above)!
Blueberry Hand Pies
Made with fresh summer blueberries and a tender flakey crust, these Blueberry Hand Pies are the perfect summer treat! Double the recipe if you’re serving a crowd!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 48 minutes
- Yield: 6 - 8 pies 1x
- Category: Pie
Ingredients
Pie Pastry:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- zest from 1 lemon (about 1 tbsp)
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Blueberry Pie Filling:
- 2 cups of fresh blueberries
- 1/3 cup of sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla
- juice from half a lemon
The Egg Wash:
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp milk
Garnish:
- sprinkle of sugar
Instructions
Making the Pastry:
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and lemon zest.
- Add the butter in chunks, then using a pastry cutter (or your hands) cut the butter into the dry ingredients to form small, pea-sized clumps.
- Then add the sour cream and bring the mixture together by hand, to form a ball of dough.
- Place the dough onto a floured surface, then roll it out into a rectangular shape.
- Fold the dough over onto itself in thirds, rotate by 90 degrees and roll out into a rectangular shape again.
- Repeat these steps two additional times.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Making the Blueberry Pie Filling:
- Place the blueberries into a saucepan over low-medium heat and simmer until the berries release their juices. Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring often.
- In a separate small bowl whisk together the sugar and cornstarch, until it is thoroughly combined. Mixing these 2 ingredients well will ensure that the cornstarch does not clump.
- Stir the sugar/cornstarch mix into the blueberries while you continuously stir. Simmer the mixture until the filling has thickened. This won’t take very long at all…about 5-10 minutes.
- Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well.
- Remove the filling from the heat and let cool.
The Egg Wash:
- In a small bowl whisk together the egg and milk. Set aside.
Putting the Pies Together:
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
- Assembling the hand pies: On a floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a rectangular shape, to about 1/8-inch thickness.
- Using a 2- or 3-inch cookie cutter, cut uniform circular shapes into the pie dough.
- Place 6 – 8 circle cut outs onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Gather the remaining dough, roll it out and repeat until it has all been used. (you need a total of either 12 or 16 circles)
- Now add a dollop of filling (about 1 to 2 tablespoons depending on the size of the circle) onto the centre of each circle (see the picture above).
- Brush the edge of the dough with the egg wash, then place a second circle of dough on top, pressing the edges firmly together.
- Crimp the edge using a fork. (see the pictures above for reference)
- Repeat process until all of the hand pies have been filled.
- Cut small slits for vents into the top of each pie using a sharp knife. (refer the image above to see how I cut 4 small slits into the tops)
- Brush the top and edges of the pies with the egg wash.
- Sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake the pies for 18 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
- Cool for about 5 minutes before serving.
Keywords: blueberry hand pies, blueberry pie, hand pies
Don’t stop here! If you’re looking for more blueberry deliciousness, head over to my blog post with 11+ delicious blueberry recipes!
Have a delicious day!
When do you add the vanilla and lemon juice to the filling?
Hi Beth! Sorry about that, I’ve fixed the recipe to include those additions. You stir these both in after the sugar/cornstarch mixture has been added and the blueberry filling mixture is thick.