Smitten with Cherry Hand Pies

Back at the end of August, Smitten Kitchen featured some Bourbon Peach Hand Pies that looked delectable.

I am not however in love with Peach Pie and so I decided to substitute another kind of stone fruit, cherry. I purchased some wonderful frozen cherries and this is where I'll put in a warning. If you are going to use frozen cherries, allow them to defrost and DRAIN VERY WELL in a colander placed in your sink for a few hours, then pat the cherries dry before making the pie filling. I did not allow my cherries to dry enough which made my pie filling a bit too moist.



The pie crust for this recipe is a bit fussy. You chill and freeze and chill the dough making the entire process really drawn out. I'm thinking of using my favorite and less fussy pie crust recipe the next time I'm in the mood for a hand pie but this crust was quite tasty.



Once you cut out the crusts (I used a small bowl as the guide for my circles), you chill the dough again.





Then you fill the crusts with pie filling (the good stuff) before chilling them again. You can see the cherry juices in the photo above which indicates that my filling was too wet.



I had quite a bit of pie filling left over which I froze to make a crumble with later.





I then sealed the crusts with water and pressed the edges with a fork.



Then you chill the pies again! At this point, I left the house to have lunch and watch a movie.



I pulled the pies out when I got home and let them warm for about 5-10 minutes before applying the egg wash and covering them with sanding sugar. I only had pink sanding sugar which is why they are pink.



I stuck them in the oven to bake and waited 20 long minutes for them to be ready to eat.



The final verdict is that this is a fussy recipe but such a yummy delicious one! I'll be making this again soon!