Cherry Hand Pies by Everyday Gluten Free Gourmet

  • Cinde Little writes the Everyday Gluten Free Gourmet food blog and teaches cooking classes in Calgary, Alberta where she lives with her husband. Her son is currently attending the University of Victoria. Cinde became interested in gluten free cooking in 2009 after a friend was diagnosed with celiac disease. As a passionate home cook she encourages everyone to just get in the kitchen and cook. Food restrictions are real and learning to accommodate them is an important skill.

Visit  www.everydayglutenfreegourmet.ca or follow her on social media:


Cherry Hand Pies

photo credit, Jim Little

Cinde Little of Everyday Gluten Free Gourmet tackles the final frontier of gluten-free baking – flaky pie crusts! Try her Cherry Hand Pies!

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I’ve been making Cherry Hand Pies lately and eating way too many of them. I got into this when someone on Twitter asked if I could teach a cooking class on gluten free flour. Sure I said, “What would you like to make?” The answer was piecrust, flaky biscuits and cinnamon rolls.

And that’s exactly what we made. I chose to make little hand pies instead of one big pie for a few reasons.

  • It’s easier to roll out a small piece of pastry to cut shapes from rather than rolling a whole piecrust.
  • Hand pies cook quicker than a full pie so you can make them, let the dough rest, cook and eat them in less than two hours.
  • They’re fun! You get to be creative making different shapes and that’s exactly what happened.

In this class we all made half-moon shapes with a small circle of pie dough and also a slightly bigger pie using two of the same size circles. Vanessa made a cute heart-shaped hand pie and Sophi made one to resemble a big Pop Tart. It was fun!

INGREDIENTS

Pastry

  • 6 TBSP cold water
  • 3 TBSP sour cream
  • 1 TBSP rice vinegar
  • 2 3/4 cups plus 2 TBSP gluten-free flour mix
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • 1/2 TSP salt
  • 1/2 TSP xanthan gum
  • 1 cup butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and fronze for 15 mintues

Egg Wash

  • 1 egg
  • 1 TBSP milk

Filling

  • 1 can (18 ounces / 540 ml) gluten-free cherry pie filling

DIRECTIONS

  1. In 1-cup measuring cup combine water, sour cream and vinegar. Set aside.
  2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and xanthan gum in food processor with dough blade. Process for 5-10 seconds.
  3. Add butter on top and process until combined into uniform crumb-like mixture.
  4. Pour sour cream mixture onto flour, pulse until well combined and looks like pastry.
  5. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Flatten each piece slightly into a disk. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
  6. Egg wash – Mix egg and milk. Set aside.
  7. Remove dough from fridge, let sit a few minutes or up to 20 minutes until it is pliable.
  8. Unwrap dough and leave the disk in the center of the plastic wrap. Dust each side of the dough with tapioca starch.
  9. Using a rolling pin start in the center of the dough, rolling out toward the edges. Lift and repeat always starting in the center. Roll out to ⅛-inch thickness for hand pies. Cut dough into 3½-inch or 4-inch circles.
  10. Drop a small amount of cherry pie filling in the center of the circle. Gently fold over pinching the edges together. Using a fork, dipped into flour, gently press the edges to seal them.
  11. Make 1 or 2 air vents in the top of each pie. Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar.
    Bake in 400°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
  12. Cool on baking racks. Makes 18-20 hand pies.

Click here for more of Cinde’s gluten-free pastry tips!

  • Tips For Working With Gluten Free Pastry
  • End Of The Dough
  • Get The Tools
  • Master The Art Of Making Cherry Hand Pies

Cinde’s ‘How to Use Gluten-Free Flour’ Series

Everyday Gluten Free Gourmet Flour Mix

Everyday Gluten Free Gourmet’s Favourite Flour Mix – photo credit, Jim Little