Cherry Hand Pies

The ultimate summer breakfast treat, homemade cherry hand pies are a gorgeous golden brown pastry with cherry pie filling and cherry glaze! 

If you’re the kind of person that prefers a higher crust to filling ratio than you will certainly love hand pies over traditional pies. Not to mention they are much easier to eat.

& don’t even get my started on the gorgeous pink color that comes with using fresh black cherries.

How to make Cherry Hand Pies

There are three parts to these cherry hand pies. The first is the pastry which I make out of my best pie crust recipe. The second is the cherry filling, which is also used to make pink glaze on top. 

How to make the pastry

This pie crust recipe is super simple to make and has never failed me! & I’m not a fancy pie kind of girl. If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that cakes are more my thing. So I’m telling you this pie crust turns out for me every time. 

I also used it in my apple butter hand pies which is a gorgeous brown sugar cinnamon apple filling stuffed inside a flakey pastry. 

Ingredients: 

• Flour: I just use all purpose flour. There is such a thing as pastry flour and I know some people like cake flour for pie crusts too but all-purpose works perfectly here.
  • I also HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale, as flour is almost always over measured. 
• Sugar: I add just a touch of granulated sugar to the pie dough. If you swap this for brown sugar, you may need to cut back on some of the water. 
• Butter: I use all butter in my pie crusts…always. I refuse to use shortening and I’ve heard great things about lard but I’ve never tried this recipe with either of those, just butter. 
• Water: you’ll want ice cold water. I measure my water first, pop it in the freeze while I get the rest of my ingredients ready and then bring it out when I need it (make sure it doesn’t actually freeze). 

How to make the cherry filling

I just made a traditional cherry pie filling on the stove, the same one I use in my cherry cream pie recipe and my white forest cake. 

It’s so easy and quick to make and super delicious but if you want to make it more like a jam, you totally can! You can either chop the cherries up (I left them mostly whole), or you can mash them after they’re cooked. 

You can also make it even more smooth with an immersion blender. Just cook the cherries as directed and then puree them. 

How to make the cherry glaze topping

Isn’t that color absolutely stunning?! And to think I almost went with plain white…lol. I just removed some of the juice from the cherry filling (after it was cooked and cooled) and mixed it with some powdered sugar.

Depending on how thick your cherry filling got, you may need a little more or less powdered sugar than I used.

I needed ¾ cup (90g) of powdered sugar per tablespoon of cherry juice but you may need ½ cup – 1 cup (60g – 120g) per tablespoon. 

The glaze will be pretty thick, it won’t be runny. That’s because I wanted it to stay on the hand pie and not run off. It still settles nicely and may still drip a little but it will set more firm. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Can I use store bought pie crust

Yes you can use store bought pie crust but I don’t know if it’s just me, I always feel like store bought pie crusts have a slightly bitter taste? But it will definitely work for this recipe. 

Can I use store bought cherry jam?

Yup! You can use store bought cherry jam, cherry preserves or cherry pie filling for this as well. Just make sure whatever you use isn’t too runny that it will leak out of the hand pie during baking. 

How to store cherry hand pies

These cherry hand pies can be stored airtight at room temperature for 2-3 days or refrigerated for 1-2 weeks. 

They stay more fresh if they’re frozen though. Just place them in an airtight container or wrap them individually in plastic wrap. Place them or the whole container in a freezer bag, squeezing out all the excess air and freeze. 

Bring them back to room temperature before serving. 

Thanks so much for reading today’s post, if you have any questions just comment down below. Make sure to leave it in the comment section because I can’t answer in the rating section :).

If you make these cherry hand pies, I would love to see it so make sure to tag me @baranbakery on instagram.

As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!

Love, B

Recipes

Flavor

Cherry Hand Pie Recipe

5 from 5 votes

prep 30 minutes mins

cook 30 minutes mins

Additional Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

total 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Serves 10 pies

The ultimate summer breakfast treat, homemade cherry hand pies with cherry glaze!

Author: Bernice Baran

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Servings 10 pies

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Equipment

• ▢
  Cookie Sheet
• ▢
  Kitchen Scale
• ▢
  Rubber Spatula
• ▢
  food processor
• ▢
  Parchment Sheets

Ingredients

Pastry

• ▢ 2 cup (240g) all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
• ▢ 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• ▢ 3/4 cup (170g) salted butter cold
• ▢ 1/3-1/2 cup (79mL-118mL) ice cold water
• ▢ 1 large egg for egg wash

Cherry Filling

• ▢ 8 oz (1/2lb) cherries frozen or fresh
• ▢ 1/8 cup (25g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• ▢ 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tsp if using frozen cherries
• ▢ 1/4 tsp almond extract

Cherry Glaze

• ▢ 2 Tbsp cherry sauce juice from the sauce
• ▢ 1 – 1 1/2 cups (120-180g) powdered sugar spooned and leveled

Method

Pastry

1. Place the flour and sugar in the bowl of the food processor. Place the whole bowl in the freezer while you cube the butter. Add the cubed butter to the flour and sugar in the freezer, for 5 minutes.
   2 cup (240g) all-purpose flour spooned and leveled, 1 Tbsp granulated sugar, 3/4 cup (170g) salted butter cold
2. Remove the the bowl from the freezer, place it on the food processor and pulse until they form pea seize chunks. While the food processor is on, stream in the water just until the dough comes together. Start with only 1/3 cup of water and use up to 1/2 cup if needed. You want the do dough to just barely stick together.
   1/3-1/2 cup (79mL-118mL) ice cold water
3. Remove the pastry dough from the food processor, press it together so it all sticks together. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for an hour.

Cherry Filling

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the cherry filling in a medium saucepan over low-medium heat and bring it to a simmer. Bring the heat down to low and allow the mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid resembles a sauce.
   8 oz (1/2lb) cherries frozen or fresh, 1/8 cup (25g) granulated sugar, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tsp if using frozen cherries, 1/4 tsp almond extract
2. Remove the cherry topping from the heat and pour it into another bowl to cool quicker.

Assemble

1. Remove half of the pie crust from the fridge and leave half wrapped in the fridge. Roll it out into about 1/8" thick rectangle (basically as thin as you can without seeing through it or breaking it).
2. Cut the edges so it forms a perfect square or rectangle and slice them into 3×4" rectangles. Set aside the leftover dough.
3. Drop a 1 Tbsp dollop of cherry filling on half of the pastries, leaving about a 1/4" overhang of the dough. Place another sheet of dough on top of it and use a fork to seal/crimp the edges and poke a few holes on the top of the hand pies.
4. In a small bowl, beat the egg for the egg wash and brush a thin layer onto the pastry, covering it completely. Freeze the pies for about 15-20 minutes, until they feel firm.
   1 large egg for egg wash
5. Preheat the oven to 350F/177C conventional and bake for 30-35 minutes, until they're a nice golden brown color. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely before glazing.
6. Repeat with the rest of the pastry from the fridge. Then press together the leftover pastry scraps, wrap them again and refrigerate for another 20 minutes before making more pies. Don't reuse the "scraps" of the "scraps", the more you press on the dough, the more tough it becomes.

Cherry Glaze

1. In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the glaze and mix until it's smooth. The amount of powdered sugar you'll need will depend on how thick your cherry sauce was. It should be feel pretty thick, almost like frosting.
   2 Tbsp cherry sauce juice from the sauce, 1 – 1 1/2 cups (120-180g) powdered sugar spooned and leveled
2. Spread the glaze on top of the pies and top with red sprinkles.
3. Allow them to air dry for a few hours before packing/stacking.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 343kcalCarbohydrates: 48gProtein: 4gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 9gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 199mgFiber: 1gSugar: 27g

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cherry glaze, cherry pie filling hand pie, homemade apple butter, homemade pie crust, pink glaze