Jammy Hand Pies
I am totally winging this blog thing. A lot of the time, I'll find myself scrolling through other bakers'/bloggers' blogs and fawning over their perfection: how are their photos so flawless? How are their website categories so organized? How is their website in general so proportional? HOW DO THEY GET PAID TO BAKE AT HOME? The questions abound. I'm no web developer, no graphic designer, no food stylist, no photographer, no trained pastry chef or chef of any kind. A lot of the time, I just wonder what I'm doing.
Like how does the manual setting on this camera actually work?
What are all these buttons and toggles in Adobe Lightroom for?
How do influencers become... influential?
How many of them actually enjoy baking for the baking part of it and not the attention part of it?
...
...
...?
I don't know. I don't know how to manually adjust the settings on my camera, and I probably should. I have no idea how the majority of the features in Adobe Lightroom work, and I probably should. (I'm making efforts on those two. ;-) ) And I really don't know how influencers get to be influencers -- and I'll probably never get to be one. (That seems to be every millennial's dream right now, so it's not very unique.)
But honestly, I just really like to bake. And I really like to write. And this seems like a really great place to express both.
And with that out in the open, let's go over the magic that is these hand pies filled with blueberry and strawberry jam.
They're simple, they're cute and they're delicious -- plus, if you have some mini cookie cutters lying around, you can make them work for just about any occasion. These were the stars (hehe) of 4th of July, and they taste awfully good after a barbecue and a fireworks show. If you don't have mini cookie cutters lying around, don't fret! Just cut steam vents in the top crust, or prick once or twice with a fork.
Jammy Hand Pies
INGREDIENTS
All-butter pie crust, chilled & ready to roll (or your favorite double-crust pie recipe)
1 cup any jam (I used blueberry & strawberry)
1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon milk or cream, for brushing pastry
Turbinado sugar or granulated sugar, for finishing
DIRECTIONS
Once your dough has chilled in the fridge for at least 2 hours, retrieve one of the discs and allow to come to room temperature before rolling. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a 12-inch circle, making sure to rotate the dough as you roll to avoid tearing. Using a 2-inch round biscuit cutter, cookie cutter or the rim of a glass, cut as many circles as you can from the dough round, re-rolling scraps if necessary to cut 6 rounds total. If there are scraps leftover, save them for crust cut-outs/decorations!
Place rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment and place sheet in the fridge while you repeat with the second dough disc. If you are using mini cookie cutters to cut steam vents, do this now -- it will get messy as heck if you try to use the cutters on top of a filling!
Retrieve bottom dough rounds from the fridge, and place a heaping teaspoon of jam in the center of each. Cover with the top dough rounds and gently seal the edges with your fingers. Use a fork to press down on the edges and ensure a tight seal. Top with decorative cut-outs, if you want, and place the entire baking sheet in the fridge while the oven preheats.
Preheat oven to 425 F. Once preheated, brush the tops of the hand pies with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. If you are cutting steam vents, use a fork or a sharp knife to prick the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the hand pies are puffed, golden and the jam is bubbling in the center. Cover the pies with foil if they are browning too quickly.
Let cool for one hour before serving!