Sweet Cherry Hand Pies Recipe | Sur La Table (2024)

FAQs

What is the best pie cherry? ›

Best Cherries to Use for Cherry Pie

I usually choose a mix of rainier cherries and dark sweet cherries, but opted for all dark sweet cherries in the pictured pie. You can use all Rainier or all dark sweet. If using sour cherries, add a little more sugar as referenced in the recipe note below.

Fold crust over and use your fingers to press edges together. Use the tines of a fork to crimp the edges together to complete the seal. Place hand pies on a sheet pan and freeze for 10 minutes before baking.

Pasties are savory, handheld pies that originated in Cornwall, England. They were popular with miners throughout the 19th and 20th centuries all over the United States, including here in Utah.

A cherry pie is a classic family favorite dessert consisting of a flaky pastry crust filled with a sweet-tart cherry filling. The filling is typically made with fresh or frozen cherries, sweetened with sugar and lemon. The cherries release their juices while baking.

Very often flour or cornstarch is used, but in certain instances tapioca, arrowroot and potato starch can also help achieve the desired consistency. Tapioca starch is preferable for products that will be frozen because it will not break down when thawed. We like tapioca in blueberry, cherry or peach pies.

Rainier. Let's start with a classic. One thing you should note: Rainier cherries have some of the highest sugar levels of any other sweet cherry ranging from 17-23 Brix.

How do you keep hand pies from getting soggy? Be sure to include cornstarch in your pie filling to soak up the juices that are released from the fruit during baking. Pre-cooking your pie filling can also help to cook out the moisture from the fruit before they are added to your pies.

WHAT KIND OF CRUST IS BEST FOR HAND PIES? A hand pie is a tiny version of a full-sized pie so we want to use a similar pie crust. I'm using Pâte Brisée which is a very simple, not-too-sweet but delicious crust. It's very similar to pie dough but the texture is finer and stronger than traditional pie dough.

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven.

The humble hand pie goes by many different names: Call it a pasty, a turnover, an empanada, or whatever you like — the crowd-pleasing filled pastry is always welcome on any table.

Can you eat hand pies cold? ›

The best thing about a hand pie is that you can eat it cold or warm it up, but the crust on your leftovers doesn't get soggy!

A pasty is a British hand pie, which means that it's a pie that can be eaten out of hand - fillings, wrapped in pastry, and baked.

This is particularly problematic with both fruit pie and custard fillings because they have high moisture content. To prevent it, you need to either create a barrier between the wet filling and raw pie dough, or ensure the pie dough browns and sets before the filling has a chance to soak it.

Not enough starches in the filling. You can use pectin, corn starch, or even flour to thicken your filling. Too much moisture in the syrup or cherries. Need to be cooked down more.

Sour cherries are actually pretty sour on their own. Some people can tolerate eating them, but they're really best for baking into pies and tarts or cooking into jams or relishes. The cherry pies you'd buy in the supermarket or the cherry pie filling you buy in a can are made from sour cherries.

Lambert Cherries

They are sweet enough to eat straight out of hand​ but they are also great for baking, as they maintain their texture when cooked. Lambert cherries are available for most of the summer, from mid-June to early August.

Sweet cherries are obviously sweeter, as they contain more naturally occurring sugars. Because of this, these are often eaten fresh. The tartness in a tart cherry makes them a perfect addition to baked goods like muffins, pies, and cakes, resulting in their nickname of "pie cherries".

Because of their rich, deep colors and because the tart cherries are superior to sweet ones when cooking, Morello cherries are a particular favorite of chefs and patissiers that wish to take advantage of both the visual and gustatory qualities of these wonderfully potent cherries.