Over a year ago, I made hand pies and declared them a delicious disaster. The pie dough wasn’t bendy enough to suit what I had in mind, and they too easily leaked and broke, but that had no effect on the final taste. Nevertheless, I promised to try them again soon, with one of three dough recipes I had in mind that would work better.
But that wasn’t the only reason. You see the hand pies? They GOT STOLEN before my friends got to eating them. I mean, who could blame the thieves, right? In fact, we knew exactly who they were and they have yet to be invited back. We take pie theft quite seriously, you see.
It was my friend Tim that had specifically requested pie, and I had the idea of hand pies to make them finger food, as there would be many people at the party and who wants to deal with plates and forks? Except, he was busy DJing so I stashed them downstairs in Jocelyn’s loft, away from prying eyes–or so I thought! When I got to retrieving them an hour later, both containers–more than 40 hand pies–were empty and crumbs-around-the-mouth guilty parties milling about were going on about how good they were.
The nerve.
Flash forward a year, and Tim has never forgotten his stolen hand pies. So, in the honor of a final barbecue for him this past weekend– he’s fleeing for Los Angeles, you see–I made some more. And although I technically have two more recipes I want to try before I call this a victorious recipe, well, it is. It’s perfect. The dough is stretchy and tender, never breaks or leaks in the oven. The end result is so puffy and flaky, it’s practically a laminated dough.
And it is exactly what you should make this weekend, portable pies with peaches or whichever stone fruit get you daydreaming of a place where summer never, ever ends. That’s what I’ll be doing at least, but from the North Carolina mountains. I can’t wait!
One year ago: White bean roasted red pepper dip
Peach Hand Pies
There’s a bit of fussing with this recipe–chill, then cut, then chill, then roll, then chill, then fill, then chill again–but trust me when I say it is worth it. There’s a reason this is one of my favorite pastry doughs, because it never fails. Sure, you might be able to skip a chill or two, but the dough will be more difficult to work with and is less likely to keep its lovely shape while baked.
The dough is adapted from my favorite galette dough in the entire world. The bourbon peach was purely inspired, if I do say so myself.
Makes 14 to 24 (depending on cutter size)
For the pastry:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into
pieces
1/2 cup sour cream
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup ice water
For the filling:
2 pounds of peaches
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bourbon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
One egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water (for egg wash)
Coarse sanding sugar, for decoration
1. To make the pastry, in a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. If preparing ahead of time, the dough can be stored at this point for up to one month in the freezer.
2. Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 4 1/2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut seven circles out of the rolled dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, and chilling process with the remaining half of dough. (I used a 4-inch cutter–if you can call a “cutter” the tin edge of the container that holds my smaller round cutters–and managed to get 12 from each dough half, after rerolling the scraps.)
3. Make the filling: Peel and chop the peaches into small bits (approx. 1/2-inch dice), much smaller than you’d use for a regular-sized pie. Mix them with the flour, sugar and pinch of salt, and add the bourbon and vanilla, if you wish.
4. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, and let stand at room temperature until just pliable, 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon about 1 to 2 tablespoons filling (use the smaller amount for a 4-inch circle) onto one half of each circle of dough. Quickly brush a little cold water around the circumference of the dough, and fold it in half so the other side comes down over the filling, creating a semicircle. Seal the hand pie, and make a decorative edge by pressing the edges of the dough together with the back of a fork. Repeat process with remaining dough. Place the hand pies back on the parchment-lined baking sheet, and return to the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.
5. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, cut a small slit in each and lightly brush with the egg yolk wash. Sprinkle sanding sugar generously over the pies, and place pies in the oven to bake. Bake until the hand pies are golden brown and just slightly cracked, about 20 minutes. Remove the pies from the oven, and let stand to cool slightly before serving.
oh, so delicious looking! what a lovely thing to have for tea. or snack. or breakfast. or…
oh, I love pie!
even better yet … portable pie!
Looks scrummy! You get such amazing photos of your food :)
Wow…you are seriously trying to kill me, aren’t you? These look and sound marvellous…
North Carolina mountains? Say whaaaaat? That’s awesome! I’m originally from Asheville, NC. Where are you planning on going? It’s a really wonderful, lush place.
If you end up going to Asheville, I must recommend two restaurants: Sunny Point Cafe and The Laughing Seed. Especially Sunny Point. Please go there. It’s wonderful.
These look soooooooooooo tasty and I was just contemplating what desserts to make for a BBQ I am going to tomorrow evening.
One question though (which is REALLY silly, but its been a long work day and my eyes are tired :) ): What do you mean by “remove large lumps” in the pastry recipe? Physically remove them (ie – take them out of the bowl)? Or keep working the pastry to make smaller lumps?
Sorry for my silly, tired confusion, but thank you for your help!
That is exactly what I want to know. I can’t wait to try this recipe, so please give us an answer asap…before the fresh peaches are just a memory.
Hm, I find this weirdly written too — I wrote the recipe 12 years ago. :) Just ignore; keep all of the dough, work the liquid into it.
Yea, right. Use a food processor. Put in dry ingredients, mix. Add cubed butter and pulse until blended. Whisk together liquids as specified. Add combined liquids to the food processor, pulse until dough comes together. I haven’t done that with this recipe, but I do it frequently for Deb’s galette pastry dough, and the two recipes are very close if not identical.
I was going to make blueberry pie…but now…blueberry hand pies seems like a much better idea! I’m not a pastry person though…so I will play w/ store bought dough!
This dough is very similar (or exact, I haven’t actually checked) to Deb’s Galette dough. It is probably easier than store bought. Just use a food processor and standard dough instead of following her instructions. Easier than making coffee with a Keurig.
If you go to Asheville, you HAVE to eat at Salsa’s!! You will be blown away by the unique (goat, roasted squash and artisan cheese quesadilla, anyone?) food and delicious mojitos. May I also recommend The Chocolate Fetish? Get the tea flavored truffles, so good. If you need cute shoes, go to Tops!!!
This look awesome – I’ve been wanting to make something like this with a breakfast filling – thanks for the inspiration!
I want. *drools*
You show a picture of yourself putting small cuts into the top of your pies before baking, but you don’t mention this in the recipe. Should we include that cut?
I tried my ass off (?) to make little pies like this last summer. I could never get a crust that would hold up or, if I did find a hearty recipe, never achieved the right crust:filling ratio. Very important. I’m going to try this. Thanks!
These look wonderful!
For some reason, peaches pair perfectly with burboun. It is a favorite combo of mine for pies and pavlovas. My mouth is watering just reading this recipe.
Mini pies seem like an invitation to disaster: the kind of disaster that involves casually and unwittingly eating them all before you realize it. I somehow have an embedded psychologicaal “stop” button that says one piece of regular pie is enough. But little pie poppers? no limits.
*drools all over the floor*
I hate you… :)
Laura et al — Yes, you do need to make slits in the pies before baking them. I will add that to the recipe.
Thanks for the NC recommendations! We’re going to be, like, way out in the sticks and cooking a lot.
Those are gorgeous – I love how rustic they look on the baking sheet in that second-to-last picture. I’m not sure how I feel about bourbon, though, and peach pie always disappoints me (I’d usually rather just eat a peach)… so since I just got my first fall tote bag of apples (hurrah for fall!!), I’m thinking apple hand pies sometime soon.
holy cow. i want one now.
Aren’t I the lucky one with peaches galore put away in my freezer. My alltime favorite dessert is fried apple pies. ( Sorry, I’m from the SOUTH.) But, these look sooo much better. Thanks!
Deb,
If you consider anywhere near Waynevilles/Balsam out in the sticks, there is an antique place in an old barn behind Barber’s Orchards between Waynesvile and Franklin. They have the most awesome apple hand (fried) pies and other apple desserts. We are proud to have you visit our little piece of paradise!
Bourbon? Did I hear bourbon?
We have spent our vacation cooking as well – more enjoyable with a 4 yr old than eating out. I only wish I brought print-outs of recipes with me. I did think ahead and brought measuring cups/spoons.
hurrah for handpies! I think you made little Timmy so happy. Awwww sniff. I already miss him. Oh wait! I’ll see him in LA next week!
Xoxo!
Jocelyn
Peach pies and a trip to the mountains of NC, that is what I call a good week. Enjoy!
This is a perfect idea!! I’m having a housewarming in two weeks and was planning to make individual tarts with my ground cherries (cool fruit/vegetable I’m growing) but was fretting about how to make so many mini tarts when I only have four tart pans. This solves everything! Once again, Deb, you rock! :)
These look great!
There is a local place where we can go peach picking and we still have some from last weekend I can’t wait to make this using them!
These will be perfect for the Labor Day picnic we are having!!
: )
In Australia, we’d call those pasties. But whatever they are called, I can’t wait to make them. They look delicious.
Your friend is very lucky. Those look fantastic!
What sweet little pies! The recipe sounds absolutely tasty!
Oh,
I forgot to mention… I put your blog as a link on my website. I love it and refer to it often.
That’s almost the crust recipe I use. Mine just calls for the same amt of sour cream and 1 egg yolk..no water. It’s almost like puff pastry and almost as flakey.
I’ve even added 1/3 cup sugar and used the dough for Rugelach…now talk about a good dough for that!..Much better than the cream cheese dough.
This looks fabulous. I love the idea of hand pies in lieu of actual pies. The bourbon-peach combination sounds heavenly!
Yum. I am way into handpies of late. In fact, I am posting fennel and feta handpies tomorrow.
When would you freeze these? Pre or post bake? or would you partically bake, then freeze?
edit: partially bake.
The North Carolina mountains, you say? Woman, if you’re within HOURS of Asheville, NC, you must go there for two reasons. 1: The Chocolate Fetish. Best. Truffles. Ever. Seriously, so so so so good. 2: The Laughing Seed, awesome local vegetarian restaurant.
Yummy! Those bourbon pies look heavenly! Your pictures make it look so easy…I love to bake but pies scare me a bit, however, your pictures inspire me!
These look great! I’ve got a bowl of cherries cooling their heels in the fridge that would be perfect for this. Now, if I can just restrain myself until I get to the party…..
I must say that I’m a bit rough on pastry preparation. I mean, you’ve shown some stuff that I don’t have anywhere near the equipment…but this looks manageable.
In line with some surprise to your North Carolina mountains reference, I currently live in Boone, NC. If I was to recommend anywhere to eat I suggest The Gamekeeper and Our Daily Bread (ODB). ODB is more for the atmosphere, but the food is tasty as well.
I must say, this is a wonderful idea, not only because peaches are all the rage right now, but because it’s a miniature pie! You can just make a couple so you don’t eat an entire pie. That’s the theme for my past 2 recipes as well, make it when you want it so that you don’t have a ton of extra dessert laying around to over-indulge in. I bet these would be great to freeze before baking so you could remove one at any time, bake it, and have fresh peach pie any night of the week!
I just made peach cobbler, with plen-ty of bourbon, it was made for peaches. I’ll make these hand pies tomorrow for saturday’s bbq.
What fun! I just got some delicious peaches so this recipe is calling my name!
I’m in trouble. I HAD to make these tonight- yours are gorgeous and having made a few things from here before (strawberry rhubarb pie was a HUGE hit) I thought I’d give it a go. This dough is so sticky. I swear I refrigerated every single time but still…it’s a mess and I don’t even know if it’s worth trying to bake it at this point. Any livecooking tips?
what a great idea. i love individual servings anything, particularly desserts. sour cream is another one of those unexpected, amazing ingredients. the possibilities with this idea are endless. can’t wait to try it.
I’m not gonna lie. I’d have stolen last year’s pies, and this year’s pies, and I would’ve eaten them all by myself. They look soooo yummy!
Oh, these are gorgeous. My mum makes similar looking curry puffs; they’re pretty standard in Malaysia. I’d confused the hell out of everyone if I made these sweet ones. What fun!
Now I know what I’ll be doing this weekend …. making these pies! Thanks, they look absolutely gorgeous.
You are nothing short of amazing. Your photos make me swoon everyday.
But this one?! THIS, with Ontario Peaches at their peak I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Thanks a bunch!
These look absolutely delicious! Its funny that you posted this–I just recently (tried) to do something similar…but it was more disastrous. I made a similar peach/bourbon filling and packaged it up turnover style, but then instead of baking, opted to deep fry them (since that makes everything good). Unfortunately, very nearly every one of them burst open in the oil and made a fantastic, sizzling, popping mess. The one or two that I salvaged in one piece were amazing, but the rest were enough to sour the mood. :-/
i am so making these today! thanks!
Once again, you’ve inspired me to set aside some weekend time and get into the kitchen and bake away. My hubby is still in awe over my (your) blueberry tart/bars, these little pies will just blow his mind, and may I add, our waistlines but oh… such goodness.
Mmm. Hand pies. Yum!! Maybe I’ll have a go this weekend at it, and break through my new apt/kitchen anxiety? Thanks again for the cake book – it is seriously amazing. And have a lovely weekend away — HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
I think the best thing about hand pies is the high crust ratio…so good!
I’m enjoying the frequent posts … keep ’em coming!
Pie dough and omelets are two things that I KNOW I can make if I just try hard enough, yet I fail time and time again. I pretend and convince myself that it’s the recipes fault, of course, knowing full well that it is my own inadequacy. If you say this is a no-fail dough, I’ll give it a gander – wish me luck!
Dear Deb,
I am one of your loyal readers from Barbados & I love love love your site! You have inspired me to become much more creative in the kitchen… Just thought I would mention that Glamour.com now has a new blog called..Smitten and the
writer lives with a guy named Alex too…weird huh?
I’ve been craving pie for weeks and peaches are in season now. This will be my project on my next day off. They look fabulous. I think I will try with an oat crust recipe.
all I can say is yum…I hope that I have time to make them this weekend!
Have fun in NC! I moved here a year ago, and still haven’t had my NC mountain camping/cooking experience…but hopefully soon!!! anyway…the peach hand pies look amazing, and i might take on the challenge this weekend if i’m feeling ambitious. or maybe monday for labor day!!
Yumm! These look so delicious. And handy! Pardon the pun. I lived in NC for almost 6 years and loved it. I’m jealous of you and your weekend plans!
Bourbon… peaches… AND the ability to take a load of these in my purse to nibble at my leisure??!! :) Too, too much!!
Seriously, these look fantastic.
And I hope you have a great weekend… sounds awesome.
OMG Renee is right. What a rip off!!!
http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/
Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for posting this recipe and the beautiful pictures. I cannot wait to try this recipe this afternoon!
Probably a silly question, but, did you measure your 2 pounds of peaches before you peeled/pitted/cut them? Or better yet, how many cups, do you think, of cut up and prepared peaches?
These look so fantastic and I had some peaches getting ready to go bad in my fridge. Now I just need an “event” to take these to so I don’t sit around and eat them all! :)
Post #46, DEE!!! I used to live in Malaysia, and we existed on curry puffs….NEED a curry-puff filling recipe NOW! By the way, I’m thinking these hand pies look fabulous, am definitely going to try making them soon! In the meantime, canning cinnamon pears this week! :-)
What a great idea for hand pies. I was so inspired by your photos that I made these today and they were amazing! I did change the filling a bit as I didn’t have any bourbon and instead added a dash of lemon juice, extra vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon to the peaches along with the flour and sugar. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
You had me at bourbon. These look amazing!
Hmm, I have been wanting to make some lemon curd pies. Do you think this recipe might work with lemon curd filling or will the baking be too much for the curd? I have about 100 lemons getting ready to fall off the tree in our backyard and need to do something with them and by something, I mean, something, lots of things baked.
HOW did you know that I was thinking about how I was going to use up those peaches in my fruit basket all day at work today?? You’re a mind reader genius!
Peaches and bourbon, you can’t beat that! Not to mention individual pies! My peaches will be ready in about two weeks, I’ll have to try this one!
Has anyone tried this with store bought pie dough? I have some in the fridge that will soon expire and would love to try it with these delicious little yummies.
OK, I feel like such a cheater here, but for all of you who are pie-dough challenged: my grandmother made the BEST fried pies in the world, and she used canned biscuits. Not the fancy flaky-buttered-layered ones, but the cheap plain ones. Just flatten them out, put a glob of filling inside, fold and seal the edges with a fork, and fry them in shallow shortening in a skillet until they are golden. If you don’t mind getting messy when you eat them all up, dust them liberally with powdered sugar!
These look divine! Is the pie crust like a shortcrust? I might cheat and use he ready rolled stuff instead…
GORGEOUS! I can’t promise that I wouldn’t steal one if given the chance…
Mmmm… I love hand pies. I don’t know if we can get any peaches here, now, but maybe I will try a different filling. Thank you for the recipe!
Savoury hand pies are a fave in the house. My son is particularly fond of Jamaican Meat Pies.
On behalf of all Southerners, fry the pies the next time. You’ll never look back.
Peaches and Bourbon are great flavor combinations!! I bet these are great with icecream and warm caramel sauce!! Oh, and toasted pecans on top!! I love your pictures. Yum!
Your peach hand pies look perfect! There is a picture of you peeling a peach with a potato peeler. I’ve never tried that method. A wee suggestion. If the peaches are hard, not quite ripe, I buy them 3 or 4 days before I want to use them and place in a large brown bag. Fold the top over. After a few days they should be ripe and peel easily with a small paring knife. Use a sharp kife to cut through the skin in about six section. Put the tip of your paring knife through the top of the peach skin and pull. A method for less than ripe peaches (one I’ve never tried) is to plunge them into boiling water for 30 seconds, more or less. Then into ice water. The skins should slip off easily. I saw Nigella Lawson making Peach Melba and that was her method.
Also, I love white peaches and white nectarines. Try ’em, you’ll like ’em.
Mmmm. Great combo, perfectly matched.
And it’s Michigan peach season! Yum. Wonder how they would taste after the roasted jalepeno poppers I just took off the grill. . . I could probably have them baked by the time my mouth stops burning! (hot peppers!)
Thanks Deb
I made these today and they were REALLY good. Definitely addictive. In fact there’s only one left! Our peaches weren’t very sweet, though, so I made a glaze with powdered sugar/milk/vanilla (in addition to the sanding sugar) and squirted it on and it was the perfect finishing touch.
*Drooling*
I am making these tomorrow. But with apples :)
I’m trying to decide if this is the time to add bourbon to my liquor collection; you indicate it’s optional, but…
Happy Blog Day! I absolutely love your blog and have written about it here: http://printerpiemaker.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-day.html
Oooh yum. When I heard To Kiss the Cook was making these, I had to come check them out…and they look amazing!! Will probably have to try :)
I’ve had really good results using croissant dough to make super flaky turnovers. I also use a sour cream crust like yours–our turnover choice? apple, but I’ll have to try some plum or nectarine ones this weekend since I have some in the fridge.
I think you can do this with any pie dough–I have done it before with left over dough while making a big pie–for a chef’s treat. I think it was with Martha’s Pate Brisee recipe. Of course, the dough that you used looks much more puffy and flaky–I’ll have to try it!
Flour and butter is in the freezer. I cannot WAIT to try these tomorrow morning. My bro and new sis-in-law are coming for dinner. They will LOVE them. When they call on the way and say ‘what can we stop and get…. anything?’ The answer will be ‘wanilla ice cream’… to go with your hand pie! The kids have already informed me.. ice cream cone in one hand, hand pie in the other! I will have to try cherry also!
Coming out of lurking to say that these took me ALL day yesterday, and it was so totally worth it. I only made half a batch, but my roommate and I (and two rather reserved dinner guests last night – they each only ate one) inhaled all of them.
Also wanted to mention that I substituted 2% greek yogurt for the sour cream, and it was totally -er- peachy. Also switched rum for bourbon with fine results.
I made these today…they were excellent…
I used ameretto instead of burbon…yum…is all I can say…
I made these this weekend, too. I made six-inch turnovers, though, and because I planned to serve some of them to children, I used one teaspoon of vanilla and wee bit of almond extract, omitting the liquor altogether. They were GREAT! Thanks!
These look just gorgeous. I have made many of these, but never known them as hand pies, which is an incredibly cute name. I call them turnovers or fruit pasties. I highly recommend nectarine and cinammon too as a filling. Thanks for sharing your pastry recipe as a perfect pastry is a lovesome thing!
I made it! Huhuuuuu!
It wasnt easy, i can say that. I did every bit of chillling and recommend not to skip any of it. And for the result, the taste of the peachesss: it was perfect. The dough turn out to be very nice when you take a bite it is crunchy and soft. But i should have cut larger circles from the dough, it was very hard to close them. What about apricots, can we put apricots or sour cherry maybe instead of peaches?
oooooh yummy!
I think I could eat a few of those right now! x
Hi Deb,
Just wondering what that wooden mat with the circles is, and where you got it from?
Thanks!
I also made them for our end of the year pool party. I agree with cincin that the chilling went on and on but was absolutely necessary. I had a problem that I hope you can solve. Once you make the filling you need to work fast because in my case it became very runny very quickly. That made for a lot of oozing while I was trying to close them. Then almost all of them opened during the baking process. And there was pooled butter EVERYWHERE! Help! Where did I go wrong? The only place I deviated from the recipe was in mixing the flour, salt and butter in a food processor instead of by hand. Could this have been the root of the problem?
Heidi,
It looks like some placemats I’ve seen before in various interior decorating stores. Here’s a link to a similar-but-not-quite-the-same one on a UK site: http://mydeco.com/product/wood-circle-4-placemat-set/8613c72bb68def269bd059bd1437cfebc805ca93/
You shouldn’t really need to order one over the Internet if you have enough local shops; I’ve seen ones identical to Deb’s in department stores as well as little boutiques. Just look through the placemat sections of any local stores that stock kitchen and dining supplies and you’ll probably come across something pretty similar.
I made these over the weekend and they are delicious! My only complaint is that the dough tastes a little bland, but that could just be a personal preference. I needed something to sink my hands (and my teeth!) into this weekend, and this recipe totally hit the spot.
I didn’t make the hand pies, but they inspired me to whip up a buttermilk pie. I’m dying to have a slice for breakfast tomorrow. Yum!
Sara – Made these today – AMAZING! But I had the same problem you did, lots of butter pooling and I had to bake these longer (approx. 10 min.) than recipe time of 20 minutes (oven thermometer confirmed correct temp). I had a lot of filling left (weighed 2 lbs of peaches before beginning) – which I froze for a rainy day. Make no mistake I’m not complaining – I’m taking to work tomorrow for everyone to enjoy!
Absolutely. I also had a lot of filling left over and also increased baking time by about 12 minutes.
They went like hot cakes at the party, though!
love your site, the photos are awesome!
These do look great. I spent the last 2 days making them — they definitely are tricky and take a lot of time. I have actually frozen them prebaking — and have not yet baked them. Any thoughts on if this will work, and if I should let them defrost before putting them in the oven. Thanks.
Lolly, when I freeze my pies, I defrost them first. Because I am always afraid if they are frozen going into the oven, I will have to cook them longer and risk burning the top and crust.
Peaches and bourbon are an inspired combination! I made peach butter last month with peaches and bourbon, plus a whole scraped vanilla bean. It was jaw-dropping good.
i had a small batch baking in the oven (i’m a night owl and love pies…what can i say?) and i too am having the issue with pooling butter. i’m sure they’ll still taste great though, but i’m curious if someone more knowledgeable can shed some light on this mystery!
I’m back! And I see I have missed a lot of questions. So, let me try to tackle some and do let me know if I have missed an urgent one.
Melanie — I love the name pasties for them, only a little because that means something entirely different ’round here.
Anna — You could easily freeze these before or after you bake them, but I really recommend before. That way you can pop them into the oven as you need, and they’ll always be freshly-baked when you want to serve them.
tokissthecook — Yes, this is indeed a stickier than normal recipe. I should have warned. But it shouldn’t be terribly so–only add as much water as seems necessary. However, all you need to make it work is for it to chill for all of those times suggested and a very well-floured surface and you should be fine. And don’t panic if it sticks a bit–you can do it! The benefit of it being on the sticky side is that it is more tender and flaky than most doughs.
Sweetcharity — You are SOOO busted. ;)
Renee — How tacky! That’s what I get of not trademarking when I should have…
Abby — Not silly. You buy two pounds of peaches, and use whatever is left after you peel and pit them. Much easier this way, huh?
Brandie — I think this could work with lemon curd filling, but of course haven’t tried it.
Katy McD — Store-bought pie dough works in theory, but as I said earlier in the entry, the homemade version of pie dough I used was difficult and nearly all of mine opened in the oven. This one is a tad softer and mine didn’t open at all. However, in a pinch, the store-bought stuff is worth trying.
Heidi — The placemat was from Crate and Barrel but when I went back to buy another one, they were all gone! I was so bummed. However, like a commenter further down has said, I’ve seen other versions of them, including one in an Asian decor store this weekend in NC.
Sara — Yes, the filling does pool juices–almost all pie filling do, I find, if they sit for a bit–but I try to leave the juices in the bowl. Mostly. However, good sealing should make even a little extra juiciness a non-issue. Hope that helps.
My sister and I made these pies this weekend. They certainly didn’t turn out as pretty as your pictures ;) We did enjoy them though- very yummy. Sadly, we didn’t have bourbon so we used grand marnier instead. Like others, we had leftover filling & had to bake them a little longer than 20 minutes. Thanks for the great recipe.
I made these yesterday after obsessively ogling the recipe and … WOW!! (I didn’t have any bourbon so I added some almond extract and cinnamon to the peaches. Would love to try it with bourbon sometime though.) The dough was very time-consuming but not difficult whatsoever – the hardest part was making room in the fridge and freezer for everything. It was my first ever attempt at homemade dough, and I was beyond impressed. So flaky, so light, so yummy. I had the same problem with the leaking while baking, but I think it actually helped to crisp up the bottoms of the pies (?). Oh, and I had WAY too many peaches leftover as well. I diced five peaches, and I think next time I would just do two large or three small – I think that would be plenty.
Looking forward to making these with fresh-picked apples and LOTS of cinnamon in a few weeks! I think those will be pure heaven.
Thanks again for another outstanding recipe, Deb!! Because of these pies and the strawberry-rhubarb crumble that I’ve made countless times already, I think my husband is going to keep me around ;) Happy bellies = happy families.
Marie in comment #78 has it right. Peeling most drupes and tomatoes works beautifully if you submerge them in boiling water until the skin just begins to split and then immediately dunking them in ice water. The ice water stops the fruit from further cooking. The skins literally slide off the fruit. With the peeler, you are actually cutting away some fruit in addition to the skins. I used this method to prepare a bushel of tomatoes in about 30 minutes this weekend.
Oh, those look to.die.for. and I don’t even like cooked fruit!
I hope you had a great time in the NC Mountains and took time to go to The Biltmore, it’s breathtaking.
I love these little pies! We just made peach ice cream and the peaches were fantastic! So ripe and juicy! I will have to get some more to make these pies!
I made these pies on Sunday for a potluck barbecue we were attending and they were a HUGE hit! Thanks for the idea. They were absolutely wonderful and the perfect party dessert, no utensils required!
I am on the second round of these babies. The dough is my first pastry dough and I ended up using my food processor since I was so freaked out about keeping everything cold and I’m a light weight with the pastry fork thingy. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to work the butter in on time. The food processor seemed to make easy work of the butter cutting and I hope that my processor didn’t overwork the dough. Glad to hear that others had pooling and left over filling. That is why I had to go seconds. I have managed to give away most of the first round and hope to take some to work tomorrow.
Deb you are my cooking sherpa since I have been inspired to make many things from your website. I almost made a special trip for eggplant but held myself back.
Thanks again for the inspiration.
I opened this email last week… and was instantly drooling. Unfortunately, I had to wait until I had a suitable fruit. While walking lastnight with my girls we noticed that the blackberries are RIPE! We picked a few bowls full today and will be making these tonight. The dough is chilling as I type.
I can’t wait! I love hand pies… the best I ever had was in Cedaredge, CO at the apple festival!
One question, as I am planning to make these fir kids, and am sadly a little short on eggs at the moment, do you have a good recipe for a glaze?
Thank you for all of the fabulous recipes!
Hand pies, that’s genius! It’s a pie that you can eat with one hand. I love pie, and I love eating with my hands, I guess that means I’m sure to love hand pies! And what’s better than a peach hand pie? Well, I don’t know but I think an apple hand pie, or a pecan hand pie, or a pumpkin hand pie would be pretty darn good! Hooray for hand pies!
i made these this morning (although i used a store bought crust to save time) and they are tasty! i ended up making about 5 hand pies, then dumped the rest in another crust fora “rustic Tart”. I like this because I can easily share some of my baking with my neighbors this way (or sample a taste without ruining the pie– much like baking a cupcake next to a cake in the oven!)
i love your blog, i don’t know why it took me so long to find it, but i’ve tried three recipes so far and YUM. keep up the good work.
I made these with blackberries last night… and they were a huge success! The perfect treat to go into lunch boxes for the first day of school. I made a glaze out of 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup whipping cream and 1/4 cup 2% milk. It came out just perfect! I think we ended up with around 30 pies… of course, there aren’t that many left now!
Thank you again!!!
These look so tasty!
I read this recipe thinking of how it combines my two homes: Kentucky, where I go to college, and Georgia, where I did the whole growing-up-and-learning-to-cook part of life. Sounds so delicious, and I can’t wait to make it to an oven to try it out!
It’s too hot to bake here in the SF Bay Area but I’ll bookmark this recipe for the fall. I think spiced pumpkin hand pies will be delicious!
I am going to try these tonight! I will probably add a pinch of cinnamon to the filling just because it is my secret ingredient of choice. I will make a few apple filled ones too. Yummy! I’ve been dreaming about these for days now.
ooooh, those look so good!
I was totally inspired by this post; went to the farmer’s market hell-bent on peaches and one of my favorite farmers shoved a first crop Gravenstein apple at me. I had to make a change. I tinkered with the filling a bit, brandy instead of bourbon, a little less sugar, but otherwise did as the recipe instructs. Oh, heaven. I am imagining a freezer full of sweet and savory pies, waiting to be baked off on cold, snuggly winter nights. The dough sort of oozed butter when I baked them, but I don’t think the pies suffered at all. They were maybe not as flaky as yours, Deb, but still delicious. Thanks for the inspiration.
I am staring at the photos of these pies and debating whether or not to take the plunge. “Plunge” meaning I am a novice baker and usually shy away from any recipe that involves chilling and rolling and chilling and cutting and chilling and filling…But alas, I may have to break away from my fears because I am destined to see buttery, flaky crusts stuffed with sweet, juicy peaches in my future!
Hmm, I wonder: would the crust dough work for lots of things? I’ve been looking for a way to combine cherries and almond extract. I think though that cherries are already out of season. Sadly, having lived in the South and been spoiled by delicious Southern peaches, I can’t bring myself to purchase Northern (or imported Californian) peaches.
Another winner, Deb! I decided to make a batch and a half of these to take to our departmental beginning-of-semester party, and they were a MAJOR HIT! I traded the bourbon for rum (didn’t have bourbon) and added some lemon juice to the filling, because my peaches weren’t quite as flavorful as I’d have liked. But they were fantastic.
The dough really is like a laminated dough, it’s unbelievable. When my husband had one, he said, “This tastes just like a croissant!” Everyone at the party couldn’t get over how light they were, and were amazed that it wasn’t too sweet. These are really, really perfect.
I will say that the process is very time consuming and kind of messy. It took me several hours to complete all of these steps, even taking out the chilling times. But they were truly well worth all of the effort. Absolutely delicious, and now I’m contemplating what to put in the next batch! :D
Want to clarify my previous post–I didn’t take out the chilling times, I even added extra time in the freezer and fridge. I meant that the total time of production was several hours, even if you don’t factor in the chilling. I do NOT recommend skipping the chilling–I’ve no doubt that’s what helps them to be so light and flaky!
Hand pies. . .absolutely brilliant! I adore pie and it’s one of my favorite things to make, but my boyfriend can’t stand cooked fruit and I can’t eat a whole pie by myself (well, I can, but I shouldn’t) so I only ever make them for company. But now, now I can make just a few hand pies at a time and eat them all by myself. Wonderful!
My daughter and I made these. We used our own pie crust recipe since it’s simpler, and used apples rather than peaches, and probably too small of a cutter, but boy, were they good! Next time we’ll chop the apples much smaller, use a bigger cutter, and not try to put quite so much filling into each pie…. These would be a great gift to give to an elderly neighbor; a full pie is too much for some people, but these would be just right! Or as a treat to take to the teachers at your kids’ school…a big platter of these in the teachers’ lounge would be a great way to thank them for all their work! Thanks, Deb!
I made these with peaches. Delicious. I baked a few up and froze the rest. I took the ones I froze right out of the freezer, brushed them with the egg wash and put them in the oven and just baked them a little bit longer. After they cooled I drizzled them with a confectioner’s sugar icing. I served them at a morning meeting of my club. They were kind of like homemade poptarts. Much better of course. Love your website!
I made these yesterday as a donation of my efforts for a friend who has medical bills from her cat. Anyway, these little suckers are great! I used apples (6 sm. should be plenty) and added rum, xtra brown sugar and cinnamon to it. The dough get kind of tricky if they get too warm. mine were getting sticky on the rolling process. i had to chill a couple times to get it to work. I recommend working around 6 pies per cut and freezing the rest of the dough/pies as you go. i cut my pies from a large can of tomatoes is used for pasta the other nite and the size run a bit small (close to 4′). i cut my apples too big (1 cm cubes) and were trying to fill 1 mounded tbl. it was not pretty.. especially when the dough is melting and i was fumbling around with apples. at one point i think i broke the dough from the sharp points of the apple filling. anyhow, i threw them back to the freezer and it all turned out okay. my pies are overfilled and not as pretty (we call it rustic) but hella flaky, sweet and saucy. it was awesome just out the oven.
finally i was worried about the 2nd or 3rd turn re-rolling (tough dough) so i cut the dough in proportions and rolled them out and made galletes for breakfast.
in short- i love the dough, the sour cream and apples and rum is a great combo but:
1. cut tiny fruit, don’t be lazy like me, especially if your fruit are pointy
2. use larger cutters and don’t be too ambitious, no over stuffing.
3. don’t skimp on the chilling, you’d be glad you did
4. give yourself lot of time for this.
5. cut the frozen butter in food processor – no patience for pastry blender.
6. i made 20 pies! dude! they’re all gone!
i am making this again for the weekend! this dough is a keeper!
I made these yesterday and they are awesome! Like, I should not be left alone in the house with them awesome.
I used my standard pie crust recipe (1 1/2 cups flour, 1 stick butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 T sugar, 4 T ice water). It held together well and I only chilled it once (before rolling it out). I wanted to half the filling recipe but my peaches were already pitted, chopped, and frozen, so I used 3/4 pound instead of 1 pound. This made 7 five-inch pies (I cut them out with the lid from a large oatmeal cylinder). I baked them for 25 minutes, and had some filling left over (maybe 1/2 cup?).
Hi! I made these this past weekend. and they were awesome.
Thanks!
I know this post is forever old, but I absolutely love these little hand pies. I want to make them for a spring shin-dig coming up, but a very special little boy that I know is allergic to eggs. I was wondering if there is something else I could wash them with instead of the eggs? Thanks :)
Would these work for nectarines? Peaches aren’t in season yet, but these look too good to wait.
Absolutely — I don’t see why not.
I just tried this recipe and they are absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, every single last one of mine opened in the oven. Every one! The filling, luckily, did not spill out, so they were still presentable. I just pretended that they were supposed to be that way. :)
Thank you for this recipe!! For some reason, little hand-held pastries are so much more appealing to me than a big round pie.
For those wondering – I think lots of fruit fillings would work. I’ve made these twice with an improvised cooked apple filling (I cook the apples and spices, first, since I don’t think these little pies don’t bake long enough to thoroughly cook apples inside). They turn out great!
Sorry for late reply – I just made these after seeing your post last year.
1) Bourbon + peaches is indeed a magical combination.
2) Mine pooled butter also. We call that “oven frying”.
3) I will use my food processor next time – didn’t cut in butter small enough.
4) I will use salted butter. I know true chefs are groaning when I say that, but I found the dough to be a little bland.
5) Powdered sugar solves most baking problems!
Hooray! I just bought a bunch of peaches, and will definitely be making these. Just for a quick size check, are the ones in the pictures the 4 1/2 inch or the 4 inch?
This recipe sucked me into browsing your blog again, and I wound up using the dough from this recipe with a strawberry filling. I goofed on the amount of fruit, though, so now I have way too much leftover filling in a bowl in the fridge. I’m thinking I may just make a regular old strawberry pie with the rest. :)
I forgot to slit the tops and my pies all exploded. Ugly but tasty.
This crust is delicious, though, it’s definitely in my permanent file now. Thanks for making the effort to find a good one.
In addition to a batch of peach hand pies (fantastic recipe! I swapped in a little cardamom due to a depressing lack of bourbon), I used a few remaining rounds of crust to make miniature upright pies in muffin tins. Gorgeous with the egg wash! The pies were a perfect use for some crisp yellow cling peaches that just turned up at the farmer’s market, and seriously the most fun I’ve had all week. Thanks for the inspiration!
Looks delish! Did you weigh the peaches before or after pitting them, and did you peel them? Thanks for sharing such a divine summer recipe!
Weight is pre-pitting. Obviously there’s variety in peaches. Always better to buy at least one extra.
I made this recipe last night to use up the overabundance of CSA peaches that I was afraid were going to go bad. Definitely not for the impatient, but these were so worth the wait! I substituted plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream, because I always have Greek yogurt on hand, but I don’t usually have sour cream and didn’t want to run out for it, and it worked perfectly. I also substituted 3 tbsp cornstarch for the flour, just because I think cornstarch is more flavorless as a filling thickener, and that also worked well. They were amazing! And dangerous–we ate about three each. Quick question for you: Have you had any luck storing them once cooked? I’m wishing now that I had frozen one tray for later baking because we had too many for just the four people at dinner, and I put the cooked ones in a storage container (after fully cooling) and they were sadly a bit soggy this morning. (Not that it stopped me from eating one for breakfast!) Not sure if there’s any way around the sogginess problem, but was just wondering whether you’d tried anything to keep them or whether they might crisp up again if I put them back in the oven for a short amount of time?
Hi Deb,
I’m going to attempt these this weekend. Hopefully, the baking deities will smile on me. I was wondering how much the teaspoon of bourbon came through after cooking. I don’t want it to be overpowering, but I definitely want it to be there, cause I like things a little boozy. I don’t have a food processor or a pastry cutter…there is a way to do this right? Um, a big fork maybe?
I would say that if you’re very sensitive to the taste of bourbon, you should skip it. It wasn’t strong to me, but since I like bourbon, it wouldn’t have stuck out. You can always use more vanilla.
Hi, Deb! I love your recipes, and this is the first recipe that didn’t immediately work out. My second attempt at this is currently in the deep chill. Living in a tropical country, I’m having to walk the tightrope between well-chilled dough and melting temps. I used my food processor to incorporate the butter but am afraid to overdo it. Does the finished dough [after adding the wet ingredients] have lots of bits of butter dotted throughout? Is that ok? Or should it be a smooth, homogenous dough?
It should have tiny dots of butter. You might want to read my pie crust tutorial as it will help explain how these things work, and why keeping everything very cold — especially in your climate! — is the most important thing.
thanks, deb. I just rushed to pull out the second batch from the oven because it started smoking again. why, oh why does is smoke like that? I baked something yesterday and it was fine, so I don’t think it’s the oven. Something in the hand pies is causing it to smoke!
Just pulled the last batch of these from the oven, and I’m on the fence. They are good…delicious, even. But I found the pastry really, really challenging to work with, even with all of the chilling. And I’m a good pastry maker! I bake by weight and I used a 4.5 ounce conversion for a cup of flour, which is what I always use, but this dough was very sticky and fought me to the end. I got 18 4-inch pies, using the cutter-tin like you, Deb. I think it is user error here, because yours are so gorgeous and others seem to have had good experiences. For me, I think I’ll use just one of those cream cheese pastry crusts for my future hand pies, because I like the soft texture, just not the futsiness of this one.
I made these today, and followed your crust-prep instructions religiously. I can’t say I’ve made that many pie crusts to date, but this was definitely the best one I’ve made! I don’t think I’ll ever work with not-frozen butter again. I didn’t have bourbon, so I used Grand Marnier instead. YUM. Thanks so much!
Hiya Deb! Can this filling be used for a regular-sized pie as well, using your pie crust recipe? If so, do I need to mess with the quantities at all? If not, do you have a fave go-to peach pie filling recipe? Thanks in advance!
was just looking for a recipe to (a) take advantage of peach season and (b) make something suitable for travel snacking…this looks perfect. one question (from a pastry neophyte): my mom can’t eat sour cream, so I’m wondering if you think yogurt would be a suitable substitute in the pastry dough? thanks! (your site is gorgeous, btw)
hi deb! i realize this is an old post, but i’m trying my hand at these for a housewarming party tonight. how would you recommend storing them if i bake them this morning? i live in a HOT climate and would love to be all done baking this morning if possible so the oven doesn’t heat up the apartment too close to the party. or would you instead recommend rolling them out and freezing the filled pastries and baking them much closer to the party?
I store pies at room temperature, always. I don’t like to wrap them up — the humidity softens the crust. Just leave them on the plate or platter. They’ll be fine for a day or even two.
I finally just made these, and they were delicious! I skipped the first step of freezing the ingredients, but they still turned out well.
With them, we ate some Haagen Dazs ginger ice cream–perfect!
I made them today for a friend’s birthday. He is a fishing guide and I loved the idea that he could take them with him. My family and my friend loved them!!! Thanks. your recipes are always wonderful!
Thank you so so much for giving this dough recipe. I have never had luck with pastry doughs of any kind, so I was a little apprehensive to try, but I LOVED working with this one. So easy to put together. Pliable no crack or breakage. Just amooth beautiful pastry that ended up looking beautiful when baked. THANK YOU!!!
My mom used to make these! She put cream cheese in her peach filling and also made some with a cheese filling, which basically substituted grated cheddar cheese for the peaches (and no sugar or bourbon). This version with the bourbon sounds yummy! I’ll have to try it.
These are adorable and it was fun to make them, but I found the dough was a little bland and the filling was missing something for me. Next time I think I’ll try the cream cheese or other cheese suggestion to give them a little more oomph.
Finally, the the pastry dough recipe that I have been searching for! While I usually eschew fillings from cans, I’m currently cooking at a field camp in Antarctica and my options are limited. This delicious pastry made a great vehicle for the #10 can of cherry pie filling that I found in food storage. Thank you, from the bottom of the earth.
Hi! I made these this week with a different stuffing (apples had to be used up ;) )
And this is really the best pastry recipe I ever tried! Thanks a lot!
Deb – don’t know if you check old posts for comments, but I finally got around to trying these (used apples – but I can’t wait to try with peaches or another stone fruit!), and I had to say THANK YOU. The pastry was absolutely, hands down, fabulous. The flavor was great, it was light/crisp and the right amount of flaky – and your instructions were so helpful! I did however make the mistake of making half the dough and freezing the rest, and i should have used 1/4, because two of us ate 8 pies. Oops! They were that good!
Anyway, I will definitely, DEFINITELY use this again. Thanks a million!
Glad you enjoyed them, and yes, I always read new comments, no matter how old the post is. :)
I never thought to not cover a pie with plastic wrap. The humidity DOES make the crust soft–maybe I’ll use a flour sack towel to keep fruit flies away though. Thanks for the great tip.
WANT. I’ve made turnovers before, but they always leak, etc. I’m intrigued by the sour cream… Must find an excuse now to make these, between SAT study-sessions! Do they count as brain food, Deb?
yum-do you think these would work with rhubarb-strawberry?
Oh goodness, these are so good. I just pulled them out of the oven and wolfed one in about 2 seconds flat. This is the third recipe from your site that’s prompted my husband to exclaim that I should open a bakery. On a side note, I didn’t have any sour cream on hand and used a cream cheese/yogurt blend to substitute and the dough is still outstanding.
Yumm! just made a batch of these but with strawberry rhubarb pie filling since thats whats in season here. So good! I had to bake mine for 25 min. and they leaked just a little but I think its just due to my over filling them a bit. Now that I know what I’m doing I think they will turn out great. Will make them all summer as different fruits come into season.
Hello! I plan on making these this weekend for a cookout on Sunday—do you think if I make them Friday night they will still be good Sunday afternoon? I will be heading out of town on Saturday morning and won’t be able to use a kitchen after that….
I have been making hand pies for a few months, trying several different crusts. Crusts that work great for tarts, galettes or pies were too flakey, too bland or just not exactly what I was looking for…til now.
I made a batch using this recipe. Oh my dog! Exactly what I was looking for…best looking, best texture and best taste…all in one. Thank you. Overall a perfect recipe…I’ve got my dough on it’s second rest in the refrigerator for my next batch.
I did cheat and grate my refrigerator temp butter and put it in the freezer on top of my flour/salt…so much easier than using a pastry cutter for me.
I thank you and pass on the rave reviews I got at the 4th of July picnic.
i made these today and used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream. worked great. i also made a few different fillings. i did the peach [sans bourbon], chocolate and blueberry. the crust for these is just so perfect! thanks for the great recipe! :)
I made a half batch of these, with 2 cups of sweet cherries and almond extract instead of peaches. Yum! I can’t wait to make some more. Thanks!
Okay so maybe I’m late to the party, but I just made a half-batch following your recipe and OHMYGOD I cannot stop eating them. Deb, what have you done to me. The crust is perfect (first time success at that!), the filling is fantastic, the whole little heavenly package just goes down so easily. And repeatedly. This is a disaster. I blame you. Thank you so much.
I made these & my husband loved them! These were spectacular and wonderful with the nice organic peaches I got in my weekl CSA box. Have you tried these with any other fruit? I apple would be good. SHould you cook the apple before hand ever so slightly? Also, good to know to store them at room temperature.
I made these tonight and they’re scrumptious. I used my own dough recipe, but the peach filling is on point! Thanks for a delicious recipe :-)
With plenty of bourbon for company while I froze, rolled out, baked these little guys, but too few peaches to fill them, I threw in some blueberries to make it stretch farther. These are fantastic.
I brought these to a picnic and while everyone said they loved them, there is no pie in the world that could make me go through the routine of chilling/shaping, shaping/chilling again. Also, I made them with a 3 inch circle and I think that made the dough-filling ratio unbalanced in favor of the dough.
I made these for the first time yesterday and even though I messed up the chilling and the freezing, it still turned out amazing.
I think if I actually made them correctly, people’s faces might explode from sheer joy.
Thank you for sharing such a great recipe and making me look good! :-)
Fabulous recipe. I couldnt stop eating them. Thank you!
I have a little extra of Ruhlman’s 3-2-1 pie dough in my fridge leftover from his tomato tart the other night…and I have 2 ripe-almost-about-to-go-bad peaches…AND I have a pregnant SIL & BIL coming over for dinner in an hour. Think the standard pie dough will work for this?
Let’s hope so!
UPDATE: Made 2 of these with a large hockey-puck sized scrap of pie dough and 2 extremely over-ripe peaches. AMAZING. I just sort of tossed some flour, sugar, salt & a splash of bourbon over the chopped peaches and made the ugliest (see: RUSTIC) looking little pies ever known to man. I forgot to dot them with butter. They were still amazing.
Deb you are an inspiration!
Deb, could this filling be used in a full-sized pie or would it be too runny? (I’ve looked through the comments and the recipes, hope I haven’t missed anything there.) Thank you!
Hm. So, the crust ratio should be right for a double-crusted pie but I have to be honest, I find this dough a little too flaky and tender for a full pie. I think the pieces might not be sturdy enough and recommend my all-butter pie dough instead. As for the filling, I think you’d end up short. Google tells me that 2 pounds of peaches might yield 4 to 4 1/2 cups of slices; for most pies, you’re looking for 6 cups to fill a standard pie pan. So, I’d increase it to a 3 pound level. If anything, the filling will be thicker than a regular pie. You might only want to use 1/3 cup flour, tops. Hope that helps.
I’ve tried mini-pies before and I could never quite find the right dough–mine was always too heavy. This was wonderful, although I learned the hard way that you should set aside at least 2 hours for preparation…I had to rush a bit and the dough was chewier than I would have liked. I used brandy instead of bourbon and it was delicious. I got good reviews from the boyfriend.
I also had to bake these for much longer than expected–nearly 40 minutes? Did I do something wrong (was my crust maybe too thick) or is my oven just poorly calibrated??
I made these a few days ago and they were delicious. I have a few ideas for the next time I make them. The dough was really light and flaky, which was great, but I would have liked it to have been a little bit sweeter. I like the mildness, and that it didn’t overpower the peaches, but I think I’ll add some brown sugar to it next time. I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon to the peach mixture, but the bourbon wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be. I think I might give rum a try next time. Finally, I had quite a bit of the peach filling left over. I’m not sure what happened, but I must have mismeasured somehow. It didn’t really matter, though–they have been a great topping for vanilla ice cream. :) Thanks for sharing!
I made some little chocolate-pudding pies using this crust, and they were out of this world! Thank you for sharing this recipe. The flavor, the texture, the flaky-goodness….this is the best crust I’ve ever had. :o) Thank you!
I made these yesterday with an apple-cranberry filling and they were perfect! I liked the wait times in between the steps. I started them in the morning and in between I went about my daily housework and gardening. By time I finished making dinner they were ready to go into the oven and came out in time for dessert. I will definitely be making this again and again, thank you!
Hey Deb, I know this is like 3 years old, But I am making a handpies with 2 fillings, savory veggie and pumpkin…. Do you think I could substitute greek yogurt for the sour cream and have the flavor of the crust complement my 2 fillings? I really want to use this type of crust because as you say, It needs to be more “bendy” Thanks!
Cassie — I haven’t tried it, but I suspect it could work.
I’m going to try these this weekend. These are very similar to Empañadas that I make with a cream cheese dough. I do have to say, last time I made these Empañadas for a going away party, they all disappeared before I was ready to serve them! I guess Hand Pies/Empañadas are irresistible! I make the Empañadas with Mango jelly and those are delish, but I am very excited to try the bourbon peach variety.
The crust for these babies were flaky beyond belief but was not as flavorful as . In case anyone makes it to the bottom of the comments here: I’d suggest upping thecrusts salt by at least a 1/4 tsp. and maybe adding a dash of whatever spices you use in the filling (cinnamon/ginger/cloves)
The crust for these babies were flaky beyond belief but was not as flavorful as I would have liked. In case anyone makes it to the bottom of the comments here: I’d suggest upping the crust’s salt by at least a 1/4 tsp. and maybe adding a dash of whatever spices you use in the filling (cinnamon/ginger/cloves)
Thanks to whoever left the comment to grate the butter onto the flour (then return to freezer to chill.) Ive never had such ease using my pastry cutter before!
Hi Deb, These look ridiculously good! Do you think your empanada fillings would work inside these handpies? Or would beef (or chicken, diced small) be too heavy for this dough? Thanks!
I made these this afternoon and they are amazing!
I substituted natural yoghurt for the sour cream and only made a half portion but I got 12 pies using 3 peaches.
The other half said “they taste kind of like Mcdonalds pies, but better!”
Why do I bother…
These make me excited! I want to make them for an event in 2 days. Wrong season for fresh peaches so I need a really tasty recipe for dried peach filling. I hope you read this in time, and you have an idea for me. :) so glad i stumbled into your site!
We made this recipe today to celebrate Pi Day (3-14). My four-year-old helped me roll, cut, fill, crimp and brush. We had a great time. We used apples in some and Nutella in others. The dough is easy to work with but we had to use a lot of flour to prevent sticking. How do we know if we’ve overworked the dough?
I just ate my first one, hot out of the oven, and oh my god it was amazing. I cheaped out on the filling and used canned peaches and replaced the bourbon with extra vanilla, since that’s all I had. But the crust is flaky and incredible, possibly the best crust I’ve ever made. I’m saving this one for sure and can’t wait to try it when I have some real fruit.
My friends and I made these yesterday – but since peaches were out of season we used strawberry rhubarb for the filling! (used your recipe for the filling from your strawberry rhubarb pie!) They turned out great. We had a bunch of extra filling left so we made a simple overflowing-with-goodness galette with the little left over dough. Thanks for all the wonderful ideas over the years!!
Hi Deb, making these has been so fun, but I have a question. I used 4″ tupperware as my cutter, which was great by the way, but after taking my rounds back out of the fridge they shrunk! Does that mean I did something wrong – like not roll enough or does that usually happen? Best.
This dough springs back a little bit — it shouldn’t be a problem.
Hi Deb, do you think these would work with a berry filling? I see that you made strawberry hand pies in the past but you weren’t happy with the dough you used for them, do you think this dough would work well with that filling? It is strawberry season now and I would love to make hand pies with them but wasn’t sure if they would be too liquidy. Thanks!
Made these last night…they were awesome! I have only done pastry once before and this came out great. It took a while to incorporate the butter (since it was frozen), but did come together.
I only used a small portion of the dough to make 3 pies for my husband and I and I froze the rest in small portions so that I can do that a few more times this summer. Then we won’t be stuck eating 14 pies in one night :)
Thanks for the fun recipe!
After salivating over this recipe for more than two years I finally made these last night! Why did I wait so long? Made a raspberry dipping sauce to go with them and ate 3 in one go! Good thing I put half a batch in the freezer to bake another day.
Made these last night for July 4th….the recipe is fantastic. The dough was an absolute dream. It’s light, flaky, buttery…and I had no problems at all with it. I filled them with apples (I was making them for picky eaters) but I think these would be stand-outs with the peach or with blueberries. I also used a food processor to make the dough and it came out great. Thanks!!
Fantastic recipe. It’s definitely going into my regular rotation. That dough is the best! I had nearly twice as much peach filling as I needed though. My mind is already busily brainstorming what else I might fill these with.
I made these this spring with Rhubarb, and now about to make a variation with blackberries this evening! Thank you for a great recipe – I don’t trust the others I find out there…
Hi Deb,
(Just saw you in Everyday Food!!! How neat!)
This was the perfect answer to the question of “What do I do with my freshly picked peaches?” The dough came out super gooey. I didn’t read closely enough to use only part of the liquid first. Also I tried pulling this together in a food processor as I have no pastry cutter. Great for getting the pea-sized crumble on the butter, not recommended when adding liquid!
Regardless, utterly delicious, as always. I cannot wait for your book to come out, as every single one of your recipes that I have made myself has been a home run. Thank you so much for blogging!
I followed the dough recipe to a ‘T’ and it came out beautifully. Freezing the flour prior to cutting in the butter (which I grated) really helped maintain the proper consistency. I ended up adding a splash of lemon juice to the peaches to brighten the flavor and keep them from oxidizing. I did find that I ended up with way too much filling for the rounds, however, but it made a great snack while I was waiting for the pies to bake! I don’t see why couldn’t adapt this for any fresh fruit in season. Thanks for a real winner Deb!
Made these yesterday as my hurricane prep project. I used a larger round – about 5 1/2 inches, because i just wanted a little bigger pie. The recipe made 16 pies using that sized round. I had some sour cherries left over in the freezer, so i made a filling with that in stead of the peaches. These were the most delicious little pies i’ve ever had. Yes, the dough is work, but you can freeze the butter and flour the day before and do other things while the dough is chilling. I also used a food processor for cutting in the butter, which made quick work of it. Soooooooo gooood!!!!!
Just did a smittenkitchen pie mash-up, using the all-butter pate brisee, the nectarine and blueberry galette filling, and the method from this recipe. I figured hand pies would be perfect for our Hollywood Bowl excursion tonight. There is runny purple blackberry juice everywhere, but there seems to be a certain charm to the it all. I will try the pate brisee recipe here next time as the dough flavor seems a bit off, but the flakiness is perfect. Thank you for the wonderful chilling tips!
This is the second recipe from the smittenkitchen that I have tried and loved. Um…however, it’s my first attempt at pastry crust in about 6 years. My pies are not the beautiful little half moons that yours are….but still yummy. I’ll have time for pretty later, I guess, with more practice. Thanks again for sharing!
I made these yesterday for the first time and I think this pastry recipe is wonderful. it is light, flaky, buttery and will compliment almost any filling. Thank You! One question though…when you freeze the pre-baked pies do you bake them frozen and at what temperture do you bake them at if they are still frozen?
I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for sharing this recipe!! I fully did not expect success on the first try with something like this… Let’s just say I’m a bit “haphazard” in the kitchen sometimes. But they turned out perfect! Definitely a keeper, I’m already thinking about how I can make some really festive ones for holiday gift-giving.
Thanks again!
Nancy
Thanks for your well written and designed site as a whole, and for your great instructions each recipe.
This galette dough is great! I found antecedents that use a cup of buttermilk as a sub for the sour cream and water. I also have a couple suggestions to share that made putting the pastry dough together a bit easier. I use a glass bowl for cold retention, put flour/salt/diced cold butter altogether in the freezer for the hour, pull it out and place in food processor pulsing several times until i can run it for 15 seconds or so until it looks like small peas or large cornmeal. I place it back in the glass bowl and back in the freezer for whatever time I get back to it. Then, mixing in the buttermilk and lemon juice with a fork gently and without mashing until it comes together well enough to ball it and wrap it back up. After that I follow your instructions to the end. It comes out perfect, and I found that I can easily freeze rolled out discs between wax paper in a plastic zip lock when I want to make them ahead of time – they thaw well on the counter in a short time and I can have filled pies (of any sort) baking in like 20 minutes flat.
I loved this dough recipe! Having finally mastered all-butter pie crust this summer (my secret ingredient was apple cider vinegar) but not being thrilled with how much it cracked while rolling it out, and how difficult it was to work with, this was just a dream come true. I used cider vinegar in place of the lemon juice — because I was making apple-ginger filling, and because I forgot to buy a lemon — and added a couple of spoonfuls of sugar, and it worked beautifully. I was a little worried for awhile, because the mixing-the-liquids-in-with-the-flour step was really…messy. (And I had to do it all at once, not in two steps, because it was just such a sticky gooey mess — my hands were completely coated.) But it rolled out perfectly, and was soooooo flaky and amazing once it was all done. I baked half tonight, and put half in the freezer to bake later, whenever I’m having a pie emergency. So great!
I used this crust for the top of individual pot pies. It was totally fabulous to the point that my teenage son has insisted on learning to make this dough so he can generate hand pies and pot pies for himself.
These make me feel like a total professional. Seriously. It’s like magic. For New Years with the fam, I shared these (half peach, half apple), your feta salsa (YOWZA!) and the creamy mushroom spread. All were eaten COMPLETELY and I showed up after everyone already had full bellies. Magic. I brag about your blog to the masses. Keep it UP! Happy New Year!
How long does it take in total looking to use this recipe in school?
Hey Deb, I’d love to make these little beasties but have only frozen peaches. Do you think it’d be best to cook them up first with maybe some tapioca, or just thaw and proceed as indicated?
You could probably defrost the peaches and drain off the liquid a bit.
Do think these would work with a blackberry filling or do you think they may leak? It’s my boyfriend’s 30th birthday this weekend and blackberry pie is his favorite :)
Thanks!
Deb,
Could I make them in advance and then freeze them? I am considering making a variation of this recipe with different fruit this weekend for a bbq but I would love to be able to make them a day in advance(when I have time) and then just bake before serving.
Deb, I have been contemplating this recipe for over a year. I think I thought the dough would be to hard. I made it tonight! I loved the dough and now I am thinking how i would do apples!
thanks
Okay, I’m brand new to hand pies. I’m thinking sour cherry pies using your sour cherry filling and this dough. Any thoughts? I’m wondering if it’s too juicy for hand pies? Thank you!
I don’t think sour cherries would be terribly more wet than peaches, but both are tricky, of course. Definitely worth a try. Sealed well, the wetness will not be an issue! Good luck.
<Oh My Gosh :)) Its so del?cious :))) thanxsss:)
I just tried my batch today (I’ve been working on these for 24+ hours) and have to say that the pastry is delicious, but I didn’t roll it out thin enough (my pies are a bit thick) and I managed to get 15 pies out of it using my egg rings. They were delicious, but I didn’t put enough filling inside. By the time they baked it didn’t seem like there was a lot of filling inside, but the pastry, oh the pastry….!
Dear goodness. This was my first time making hand pies, and I could not be happier. Mother neccesity is credited for the success of my pastries, in the end, however. I did not have sour cream, so I used plain Greek yogurt. I didn’t have lemon juice, so I used lime, and I did not have enough peaches, but I had enough mangoes on hand to make up the difference. The result was heavenly. After tasting the final product, the only thing I would have done differently would be to through a bit of cilantro in my filling. Any filling would be heaven with this dough recipe, though. Perfection, I tell ya. Bravo!
Oh yeah… I didn’t have Bourbon, either, so I used rum. Added to that nice carribean flavor. :)
I made these for a letter-P-themed potluck yesterday, and they were incredible. I burned a couple of them, and even they were devoured before anyone else’s food was gone!
how long do these stay fresh?
I’d keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Hello from Germany,
just making these….hopefully they turn out as good as yours look! An they look incredible!
sincerely
Sanne
I made these using nectarines (frozen, sliced not peeled) from our tree. I chopped them then let them thaw with the peel on and mixed the filling ingredients. I made the dough, chilled it and the filling and didn’t get back to the recipe for 2 days. They needed to bake an extra 10 minutes but, They were great! I had a lot of filling left so I put it in a pie shell with a crumble topping and baked it. One of the best pies I have ever made. Thanks for a recipe that you can really mess up and it is stil tasty.
I made these and they turned out great! Unfortunately, they don’t look as nice as yours, they’ve been dubbed as my “Exploding Pies” by my husband…who ate nearly all of them :)
Hi Deb…do you think I could make the filling and freeze it to be used at a later date?
Lindsay — I don’t see why not.
I made these today and would make them again, but with some changes. First I agree with a previous baker and would only use 2 large, 3 small peaches. I actually weighed out 2 pounds and have enough for another whole batch. Second, I would roll out the dough thinner and add a little more sugar to the filling. The dough was tasty but seemed to be lacking something but maybe it was because the peaches needed a little something more. Also, if you are going to make 4 inch rounds, you need to use 1 tablespoon instead of 2. Two TBS makes a mess when trying to seal them.
wow, these look absolutely amazing!!! I want one now!!
First, I’m so excited that I stumbled on this recipe of yours! My family has a peach farm (Dickey Farms) in Georgia, and I don’t think May can get here fast enough, so I can try out this recipe!! Being from the South, of course my first thought was I wonder if these can be fried. I’m a big pastry girl, but have only tried to fry doughnuts once and failed miserably. Anyways, just wondering if you have experimented with frying these little pies. Thank you!!
Can overworking pie dough make it bland? I know it makes it tough, but I’m not entirely sure why my dough was so bland. The recipe is pretty much the same as the pie crust 102 dough from elsewhere on this site, which is delicious, plus sour cream and lemon.
Of course, I used 1/4c plain regular yogurt and 2 tbsp lemon juice instead of this exact recipe, perhaps that’s it? Or is it just the omission of the 1 tbsp sugar that the other recipe has?
Either way, I wouldn’t make them again the same way I made them this time, because while they’re not _bad_, they’re not great enough for the time it takes to make them with the lack of dough flavor. They sure were pretty though, and a perfect addition to our open-air Shakespeare viewing picnic.
Sengkelat — Overworking cannot change the flavor profile. Can you tell me what you were looking for? More acid or sweetness or saltiness? Adjusting those will probably get you closer to the flavor you’d hoped for.
Cooked up the last three that didn’t fit on the baking sheets for the initial baking. Used salted butter instead of egg whites to anchor the sugar, and they turned out really yummy. So next time, salt and sugar. Eagerly waiting till peaches are in season.
I have made these hand pies several times for the boys at work, and they LOVE me for it. THANK YOU ;) I do have a question though,{it might sound silly to you, but i’m still learning}, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dough {despite the MANY steps it takes}, can it be used for a regular peach pie??
Hoping you can respond soon {as i’m hoping to make it tonight!} Thanks again for sharing!
I made these today for the 4th of July (thankfully the heat wasn’t too bad in Michigan otherwise they may not have been possible, according to physics at least), and I will probably only get about 10 pies total out of the dough; even with making half of them with a slightly smaller 4″ cutter. Possibly I didn’t roll them quite as thin but they truly do look 1/8″ and are quite thin, and I don’t think I could roll them out thin enough to really make 14-24 pies ever. Surprised to read through the comments and not notice anyone else having this dilemma? That said I am an avid follower and love everything you (and subsequently, I) make and I’m sure these will be as delicious as everything else I’ve made from your recipes!
Also, how far apart should the pies be placed? They puff slightly and I’m assuming it’s not enough to matter much how close they are but I did wonder about it.
Hi Lindsay — Sorry you didn’t get the right yield. It may not just be you; I’ll let you know when I retest it. As for rolling it thin, you might have done this already but in case you didn’t, the easiest way to get them to roll thin is to get the dough very cold again, even after a few minutes in the freezer (i.e. the butter will be mold-able not melty, making the dough stretchy). As for baking, an inch apart should be fine.
Gotta make hand pies! Don’t want to go to the store, so I’m using what I’ve got (and I cheated and used frozen/grated butter to replace a chill)… I’m using a very tangy homemade yogurt in place of sour cream; lime juice instead of lemon juice; used kosher and upped salt to 1 tsp… and (this is hopefully not too crazy — I’ve seen America’s Test Kitchen use vodka – it’s soupier, but alcohol evaporates quickly & leads to crispness?) I used 1/2 c. tequila instead of water. Ha! We’ll see…
Hi! Thank you so much for this incredible recipe, everyone I’ve made them for has gone crazy over these perfect little pies! Also, thank you for the tip of freezing the dough after the initial step of cutting in the butter. I haven’t tried freezing it just yet, but was curious as to if freezing could work any further into the recipe? I’ve often wanted to make these as part of a special meal with my family, but I just didn’t have the time (even with all the inactive chill time). Have you ever taken the dough all the way to the circle cutouts, then froze those? If I could do that, having those thin discs in my freezer ready to be filled would make things so much easier. Has anyone done this?
Thank you so much!
In the recipe you mention the pie crust can be frozen for up to a month. Can it stay in the fridge for a day or two? Thanks!
Kelly — Definitely.
any idea how this could work with blueberries? i’ve got a TON again in my CSA this week.
Made these last week. Very tasty! But the crust was soggy within a half day. Any suggestions gir that? Also, why do you use this dough vs. your peach pie dough? this one is much wetter because of the lemon juice, I assume, and a little harder to work with.
Also, I asked this on another recipe but to give it 2 chances of being seen… what pastry blender do you use? mine has died and I need a good one for working with frozen butter.
Hi Kassidee — I’m sorry you had trouble with sogginess. I use this crust here because it’s so flaky and tender, and easy to bend without breaking. You can definitely use a standard pie crust, like the one I use on the peach pie, instead. I have this pastry blender from OXO. I’m on my (lifetime) third, and love them (but do indeed eventually use them to death or do something stupid to break them; user error!).
Thanks for the equipment suggestion! I’ll look at it. I think the softness if the crust is due to our humidity here in SC. They were crackingly flaky right after baking, so it’s not an error in the recipe! :-)
Hey deb, i really want to try these they look amazing, and i’ve been craving some peach pie, but i cant have dairy! I was already planning on substituting margarine for the butter, but im at a complete loss for the sour cream, any ideas?
Made these. Loved them. Love your site. Love you! :)
I made the peach bourbon recipe in the cookbook. Have you ever tried it with pears or apples? What would you do differently?
It’s my new favorite dessert. I could eat them until I pop!
Eliza — I haven’t but it was inspired by apple dumplings. They’ll take longer to bake and are usually baked whole, but I see no reason not to use halves again so the portions aren’t insane.
Thanks Deb! I’ll try pears next week! At this rate, I might turn into a dumpling.
Oh no. I may need a little crisis intervention: I have the dough in the freezer currently, but to call it “dough” is generous. It isn’t holding together, it feels like i have too much flour for the amount of liquid, i’m nervous about over working it, and i have added another tablespoon of cold water. Not sure what else i can safely do? This is my first attempt at pastry dough of any kind. I’m so excited, but so terrified. Help! (Or else i’ll just have to drink the bourbon!)
Hi Emily — First try to roll it out without extra water. Gently, it’s normal for it to crack if you roll too quickly. If it needs more water, you can try to knead some in. Good luck.
Hi Deb! I have volunteered (eek!) to make 100+ hand pies for my sister’s wedding coming up in about 6 weeks. Would you still recommend this dough for hand pies over your all-butter recipe? I am planning to assemble and freeze them ahead of time and bake them 1-2 days before the wedding. Would I then just bake from frozen? Any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
I’m here to report about successful trials with apple fillings.
When I did a keyword search on this post, only one other person commented about “apples”.
Here is what I did for my apple hand pies (and they came out fabulous, did I mention that? The Honey has already downed three – I’m pretty sure thats a third of a real pie…).
For the crust, I roughly followed the recipe Deb has on this post for the peach bourbon pies. However, I did not have sour cream in my fridge. I had whole milk ricotta, kefir, and lemon. Deb’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sour cream, so I modified by using just under half cup of ricotta, and topping it off with the kefir and a few squeezes (about a Tablespoon) of lemon juice. I mixed all this together and then added the half cup of ice water. This slurry worked fine in place of sour cream and ice water.
One other modification I made to Deb’s crust above is that I did 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1.5 cups of white flour. I was worried it would be gummy or stretchy dough, but in fact, it was perfectly flakey and added a savory rich quality with the WW flour – love it!
The filling: 4 farmer’s market apples sliced on the mandolin (down to just-before-the-core part). I sauteed them in about 2 TB butter on the stove. Added 2-3 heaping TB’s brown sugar, and seasoned with cinnamon, cardamon, tiny pinch of cloves, and grated nutmeg. I added a few raisins towards the end as well (probably was about a 1/4 cup or less; the apples really ended up cooking down so I thought I should try to bulk it back up….). After the apples reduced in size by about half, I turned the burner off, and then took the skillet to our bench out back and had them cool off (faster then leaving them on the counter to cool to room temperature and where I live its plenty cold outside to help expedite this process).
I measured a few different round things in my kitchen (saucers, small bowls, etc) and found a small mixing bowl I have that is 4.5 inches across – this is what I used to get my circles for the hand pies. From the dough I crafted 14 hand pies with my 4.5 circle cutouts.
There’s a second batch in the works for later this evening! Thanks for the inspiration Deb! Always a pleasure when experiments turn out successful and I wanted to share with the rest of the SK community my findings in case someone has a hankering for these in the fall/winter months when peaches aren’t around…..
I have a bourbon peach recipe I’ve been testing… how long do you soak your peaches and how bourbon-y do they taste? I’ve tried soaking for an hour and found them not bourbon-y enough. I soaked them for 24 hours & they were too bourbon-y. This batch I mixed with unsoaked peaches to balance the pie.
Any thoughts?
I’m not sure I follow… I don’t soak the peaches in bourbon for this recipe. Were you trying for something different?
Fantastic recipe! That pastry is a triumph. I didn’t have sour cream so I used yogurt and it was perfect. Thank you for this new classic.
this looks like the same crust recipe as the one for the burst tomato galette http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/08/burst-tomato-galette-with-corn-and-zucchini/ (which I love by the way) except a little more futzy with freezing stuff ahead of time and removing lumps etc… is there a reason for this, or can i just make like i would make the galette dough.
meredith — It’s very similar, I’ve just streamlined it over the years so no reason not to use the newer directions. Freezing stuff ahead of time is still a fantastic technique for keeping a crust cold and unmelty, especially in the summer.
I live in San Francisco. there is no summer!
Would it be okay to refrigerate them uncooked, once filled overnight to bake fresh for breakfast in the morning?
Ashlie — I would freeze them overnight, not refrigerate, which won’t keep them firm enough not to potentially get soggy. You can bake them right from the freezer, will probably just new a couple extra minutes.
I made these last night. The dough to start with was SUPER wet – might be because I substituted fat-free Greek yogurt for sour cream? I added flour several times to help balance that out. I was worried it would be super tough but everything worked out fine.
The filling, however…if you can call it a problem to have over half of your filling left over when you’ve finished making the pies, then it’s a high class problem. But wow, there was a lot of filling left over. Did I make the crusts too small/thick? Not sure. The pies turned out fine but I’m thinking today I’ll make a slab pie crust to use up the rest of the filling. Like I said, high class problem.
Hi there –
I’m thinking about making these and freezing once assembled so that I can bake off a couple at a time. What are your thoughts? do-able?
I’m revisiting this recipe after great success last summer (this time I’m going to use the crust recipe but fill with caramelized apples). I saw Kelsey’s question above, and wanted to note that I made a big batch in the summer of 2013, froze them on a sheet pan, then individually wrapped them and tossed them in a big freezer bag. We had peach pies all through the winter, with no notable loss of quality. And it was always a happy surprise to remember I had more pies while rummaging through the freezer to find something.
Okay. I made these last night, but with apples. I am VERY much in love with this dough. It a dream to work with, but I came here to say that I made it in the food processor. And it worked. I normally don’t like to do pie crusts in the food processor, but because I was also making a vegan pie dough, I was overwhelmed and decided to make them both in the food processor. I actually think that this dough can stand up to the food processor, and it made that step a little quicker and easier. The apple filling was straight forward: chopped apples, 3 T flour, 1/2 c. sugar, some cinnamon, powdered ginger and nutmeg and about 4 T lemon juice. The other thing is that I left off both the egg wash and sugar on top of the pies, because, well it was 10 pm. But I think this was a mistake, because it almost needs a little more sweetness. The other thing I might do next time I make this dough is add a bit of sugar to it. Thanks Deb, for the great idea!
Deb–love this recipe. I want to use the filling to make a peach layer cake (for the frosting I will use your brown sugar cream cheese frosting). Can I just make this filling as written, given that in my layer cake it will not get baked? I suppose my question turns on the addition of the flour to the diced peaches–is that filling edible without getting baked? Thank you!
Just tried this recipe with my gluten-free mix, and it turned out great. The crust was so crispy and flaky, yet tender! It almost resembled a really tender puff pastry. As for the filling, I would double the sugar. I like my desserts a bit sweeter, but I wouldn’t at all say cloyingly sweet.
The dough was easy-to-work-with in terms of forming the ball and rolling it out, but I had quite a bit of trouble sealing the edges of the pies. It turns out that it didn’t really matter that much anyway because the liquid seeps out a bit regardless and the crust doesn’t get soggy. I can’t wait to use it in a galette. I didn’t find it worth the while to trouble with the fussy edges of the gluten-free dough to make mini pies. A galette with this delicious crust sounds divine! Thanks for a delicious crust.
SP, to make this filling a layer cake filling, you’d have to cook it until it’s nearly dry (no longer runny). Cornstarch will likely be a better fit for something like that, as opposed to flour. I have done a cake filling with fresh pineapples, and it works well. Just dissolve the starch in cold liquid before adding it to the cooking pineapples and whisk it in well. Good luck!
Just a comment as a few people have mentioned the dough being very wet. I’ve made these three times and the first two times the dough was so wet and sticky I wanted to throw it across the room (but I would’ve had to scrape it off my pastry mat first). I had to add what seemed like endless amounts of flour. So the third time I cut the water in half and it was a magical dough and so much easier to handle. If it’s your first time making them, I recommend starting with half the amount of water and adding a tablespoon at a time as needed. Obviously this hasn’t been a problem for everyone, but on the wet coast of Maine maybe my flour is just full of more water!
Could this recipie be adapted to make mini peach pies? I have small tart pans with removable bottoms that I was thinking of using for these…
Shivai — I might start with my classic peach pie recipe instead, and add a splash of bourbon.
I made these today with the peaches that we picked, and they are SO SO GOOD. Two adjustments: I read all the comments about the wet dough, and only added 1/4 cup of ice water. Very happy about this because the dough was wet as is. Also, I baked for 20 minutes, and they were pale golden, but I baked the second batch for 25 minutes, and they were perfectly golden. I used a 1 cup measuring cup which is 4″ in diameter.
Question: I have some leftover filling – any suggestions for what to do with it?
THANKS!
SallyT — Make a little crisp!
I made this over the weekend, using the blueberry filling from King Arthur’s recipe for Blueberry Hand Pies instead, since peaches are not in season yet and I got the blueberries on sale.
AH-MA-ZIIIING! It’s my first time with pie dough too, and although it came out messy and not as neat as yours, it tasted delicious. Thank you for restoring my confidence in pie makin’!
Super frustrated.
1/2c water, 1/2c sour cream plus lem juice is way too much liquid /moisture.
I thought so but tried it anyway.
Gloppy gluey mess.
PS: pro pastry chef, not a home cook.
Should there be sugar in the dough?
Will this recipe work with store bought pie dough, cut into the 4.5″ circles?
Love to take these pies on lake trip with old pals. Can I make ahead and freeze?
Yes, they should freeze well.
Deb, any tips for the chilling process for those of us with small fridges who can’t fit a baking sheet in there? When I’m refrigerating a ball of dough, it’s no problem. But a couple of baking pans that can’t be stacked… ? No space.
You can also just use the freezer, but for less time.
They look amazing, I can’t wait to try them!
So instead of cubing and cutting. The butter, I took 1 cup of frozen butter and grated it. Next time I might even food process grate it. The quicker the cooler it stays
First, you’re a genius for putting in the Jump to Comments button, and the “I Made This!” section. I’m one of those people that scrolled through comments past the “Looks Yummy” and “link to my blog” for the person who had experience making it.
I made these and the entire family raved about them! The dough is perfectly flaky perfection-and so light. It’s completely worth all the steps and time, so please follow them! I did use the recommendation from the comments to grate the butter and that worked perfectly as well-just make sure you thoroughly mix it into the flour/salt mixture before you freeze it.
We get our peaches from the Western Slope of Colorado this time of year and this recipe is the perfect use for them!
I made these this weekend – more disaster than delicious. Maybe it was too hot. As soon as I put these in the oven they began to melt. The bottoms were gummy. The tops looked like someone had run over them with a lawn mower. There was fruit soup all over the trays. I tried to convince myself it was a delicious fruit frico, but I ended up throwing these out. So sad.
Same here. Way too much butter in the pastry. More like a biscuit than a pie. Made pies more the size of wontons. Wil go back to my regular pie crust and my grandmother’s (from South Carolina) peach filling. Big fail.
My husband made these yesterday (he’s the baker in the family). They were perfect! Not too sweet, excellent buttery flavor, flaky and gorgeous, beautiful golden hue. I wanted slightly more bourbon flavor to them, but regardless, warm or cold they are truly a treat for breakfast, snack, dessert…
I made these last night. I wanted to try a new recipe and we had just bought peaches from the farmer’s market. I substituted greek yogurt for the sour cream. They still came out nice and flaky, but I’m wondering if they might have had a richer flavor with the sour cream. The peach filling was watery so I strained it before spooning it into the dough. I also made the filling after the first chill and not immediately before filling so it’s possible the juices had more time to ooze out in a bowl as opposed to when the recipe indicates preparing it. They came out great! I loved the water brush trick and the egg wash was a nice touch. I filled a few with left over breakfast potatoes and American cheese and my boyfriend loved those. Will be making these again!
How should these hand pies be stored? They got soggy when I covered them. I left them out loosely covered, but unfortunately they got moldy after 3 days. Should they be put in the fridge? Should I freeze them and take them out when I want to eat them? I tried eating them as fast as I could, but I didn’t make it!
They were delicious though!
I’d put them in the fridge. You can also freeze them.
What about using pre made dough like Pilsbury? Would that work? Really not in to making pastry from scratch!
Should work just fine.
I noticed the decorative edge in the before-baking pies, but the post-baking pies didn’t have that decorative edge? I am wondering if this discrepancy is… two different batches, and if so, how did you achieve a good seal on the non-decorative batch? I love how trim those ones look.
Love the new site, by the way. I’ve been reading every post on the blog for the last three years, since my senior year of high school. I have been fully loving the journey! Thank you so much for all you’ve taught me.
I thoroughly abused this dough–using my stand-up mixer, subbing Greek yogurt for the sour cream, chilling for about 1/4 the prescribed time, rolling out my leftovers about 5 times–and it STILL came out flakey. Magic!
I made your peach dumplings with hard sauce out of your cookbook for a family dinner last night, and Oh. My. God. They were PERFECTION. I wanted to find the recipe on your site and tell everyone to make them IMMEDIATELY but this is the closest recipe I found. Thank you for an amazingly delicious, seasonal and easy recipe. My husband doesn’t even eat desserts and he had two and exclaimed that they were restaurant quality. LOVE.
I have also made the peach dumplings with bourbon hard sauce from Deb’s cookbook. My family said it was the best dessert I have ever made! Love that recipe!
Can I substitute cornstarch for the flour in the filling? I often use that thickening agent when making pies – unless there is a reason the flour is better in this use? I’m looking forward to trying the recipe this week. Thanks!
I’m wondering if these freeze well? And if so, would it be better before baking or after? I’m thinking I’ll need to have LOTS of these on hand!
Yes, they freeze Great. I freeze them unbaked. When ready to bake, take them out of the freezer, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake frozen. They will only need a few extra minutes. Taste and look like fresh!!
I made the dough tonight and found that it wasn’t enough liquid for the flour mix. I added more of the ice water to finish mixing the dough … is that the best approach? Have you run into this before? I’m rolling and filling tomo .. fingers crossed these look and taste as good as yours! Thanks
I haven’t found this; it’s usually the opposite because this dough runs sticky. Hope they turned out well.
Full disclosure: I’m a beginning baker. I made these hand pies last night and wanted to add some feedback on things I would do differently when I make these again ….
– I used a 4” biscuit cutter for the dough which made it difficult to fill and fold. I think using 4.5” or larger cutters is REALLY important to make sure the filling to dough ratio is good
– I cut up my peaches into approx 1/2” cubes. Next time I would go even smaller to get more fruit into the pies. The larger the pieces, the more difficult it is to stuff with enough fruit
– I also cut up my peaches the night before which made them extra juicy… all this juice was great until it oozed out of my pies. Next time I would be more mindful of the amount of liquid in my fruit before filling
Overall, the pies were delicious (my husband ate 5 before dinner!) but I’m going to eventually try this recipe again with these changes. Wish me luck =)
I had to substitute Greek yoghurt for sour cream as it’s unavailable in my country. The dough seems super sticky now… Is there a way to fix it or will it come together? It’s currently resting in the freezer.
Soft dough is fine. Don’t overwork the dough (the butter will melt, which is not something we can reverse) and then fully chill it for a couple hours. It should be fine to work with then. Green yogurt is a fine swap.
Avoid green yogurt. lol
I made these yesterday. Absolutely delicious & delicate flaky pastry. A labor of love for sure! The dough was just a little dry when gathering into a ball to wrap. Took a little patience.If I make again, I would cut the fruit even smaller so I could get a bit more into the pies. Also, I realized quickly not to put too much water on the edges for sealing them. It gets gooey and breaks down the dough if you put too much. It took 30 minutes at 375 to get these golden brown. Beautiful and not too sweet! Everyone raved about these.
I regret using the galette dough on these–wish I’d used Smitten’s regular all-butter pie crust. This dough is high maintenance, hence the suggestion to keep chilling. Just too fussy for me. At high altitude (5500 ft), these also needed a longer bake time and a higher temperature.
Hi-ya! I found it easier to cut twelve 2 and 1/2″ circles and chill on a cookie sheet, then roll each one to 4 and 1/2″ circles and fill, then put back on cookie sheet to chill. cut the little left over bits into stars or flowers, to applique over any holes or tears when you fill them.
Do you think the dough could be whizzed up in the food processor (my preferred method for pie dough)?
Yes but I only like to use the FP for butter-into-flour. The wet stuff should be stirred in or the butter gets over-blended.
Thanks for another great recipe! Made this for the second time for thanksgiving with apples! You are right this is slightly more complicated but well worth it. First time I made it I had a hard time getting it to come together- lots of flour left unincorporated. This time I made it all the way through in the food processor. Came together in a snap- slightly on the wet side but manageable with a little extra flour when rolling out. Made and assembled last weekend and froze. Baked this morning straight from the freezer. Yum!
Deb, I have the hardest time finding ripe peaches in my area. Would drained canned peaches work moderately well?
I’d use another fruit instead, because canned peaches are so syrupy, sweet, and soft.
I made these last week, though I used 50/50 nectarines and cherries instead of peaches, and i left out the bourbon. They came out pretty good, with a few modifications.
The recipe calls for a whole cup of liquid to be added to the dry ingredients. It seemed like a lot. I only added 3/4 of the liquid and the dough was still very wet. Far wetter than I’m used to when working with pie crust. That said, the end result was a delicate and tender crust that I was very pleased with.
The recipe calls for only 1/4 cup of sugar added to the fruit, which, even for peaches, seemed skimpy. I tripled the amount of sugar, adding 3/4 of a cup and my pies were just sweet enough without being overly sweet. However, adding the sugar to the fruit before filling the pies did cause a lot of liquid to be released from the fruit and I found myself filling my pies with what could be described as more of a fruit sauce. This resulted in a juicy eruption from the pies while they baked. They weren’t pretty, but they were delicious. However, when I make these again, I will be taking a tip from Julia Child, whose mini galette recipe says to sweeten each pie individually, filling the crust with unsweetened fruit, then sprinkling a few teaspoons of sugar over the filling before folding over the crust.
The egg wash for this recipe seemed off to me, very watered down, and resulted in a very pale top crust in comparison to the deep golden brown of the bottom crust. They almost looked under-baked, though they were not. For my next batch, my egg wash will consist of 1 yolk + 1 tbsp of cream, which should result in a nicely browned top crust.
I made slightly bigger pies, using a 5″ circle cutter, but I still managed to get 14 pies by rolling the crust to 1/8″ thick. The amount of fruit this recipe called for was far more than could be used to fill these pies so i ended up with about 1/3 of the filling unused, which sadly went to waste. If I hadn’t added all the sugar up front i could have made a nice fruit salad with it, but alas.
Last thing, my pies took about 35 min to bake, which is 15 min longer than the recipe called for. Maybe if you are making tiny hand pies then 20 min would be enough.
I will say that if I didn’t have a fair amount of baking experience, this recipe might have turned into a disaster. But, with a few tweaks, these pies came out quite tasty and nobody seemed to mind that they weren’t the prettiest.
As an aside, it’s too bad that so many of the comments here have nothing to do with the recipe. It makes it hard to sort through and find the ones that might actually be helpful to aspiring bakers. But I’m a big fan of smitten kitchen, so thanks for all the great recipes and inspiration!
I really want to make these to mail as valentines to my overgrown kiddos. So of course that means cherry pie instead of peach since its not peach season either. Would you mail frozen and unbaked or baked and then frozen? I know crazy right but they were raised right and will love pie and its too far to drive. Suggestions???
If you can get it there still frozen, it might be better since they might get mashed up en route if already baked.
If I wanted to put this filling in to a regular pie, is a single recipe enough? Double it?
Hi! Can you freeze these after baking? I’m worried about the peaches. Will they get weird in the freezer? Or maybe I can freeze before baking…
Just bought some perfect Georgia peaches at a roadside stand, so I came straight to Smitten for a hand pie recipe. I used half sugar/half Savory Spice’s Georgia Peach Spice blend which contains vanilla bean sugar, and omitted the bourbon. Unsure my cut-in butter pieces were small enough, I forged ahead and followed all of the chilling steps and baked. Let’s just say, I ate three today. The filling stayed put and was not too sweet. And that crust! Flaky shards, just like I hoped. Next time, and there will be a next time, I will grate the butter for ease and remember my oven requires a little longer bake to ensure those flakes. So worth it!
Awesome recipe! I am terrible at making pie crust but these hand pies turned out great! In fact, my family assumed it was store bought dough for the crust. I did follow all directions with the exception of the bourbon- just used what I had on hand but I imagine that the bourbon will be extra tasty. I used a peach liquor- good flavor but I think the bourbon would keep flavors brighter. Thank you for this recipe! Made the crust and the pie filling the day before and put together the hand pies the next morning.
could you sub the sour cream w creme fraiche?
Yes
I am going to make the Bourbon Peach Hand pie this week seeing as I have an abundance of peaches. Have you tried freezing them? How did that go? Love your cookbooks and weekly updates.
They freeze well. You could freeze them before baking, too. And thank you.
Made these for a picnic today and they were wonderful! I was a little worried after reading some of the comments, but the dough wasn’t too challenging for me. It’s sticky, but not totally unmanageable. I rolled mine out on parchment and used the freezer instead of the fridge for the last two rounds of chilling to speed up the process.
So flaky and so delicious! Excellent recipe as always, Deb.
I make these every year and they are ALWAYS a huge hit. Note from this year: don’t use European butter! There was WAY more butter leakage than is typical. I used both bourbon and vanilla (1 t), baked for 25 minutes, and got 21 hand pies using a 4″ cutter.
Hi Deb, could I sub almond flour for APF in the mix since I’m guessing the idea is to add a thickener I’m making them Sunday.
I haven’t used it for a pie thickener before but if you have with success, you could definitely try it here.
These are DELICIOUS. Proceed in the order and freezer/fridge time she says because you don’t want the filling juicy and the first freezer step – more than an hour was too long for me. Butter was too hard to work with. Should have known better.
I did use the bourbon and vanilla. My peaches weren’t very sweet so I added 1/4 teaspoon of raw sugar atop each pie’s filling.
At 3400′ altitude I baked mine at 355 convection. Took almost 25 minutes.
Deb, I cursed us both during the entire recipe time! Dough/crusts are my Achille’s heel–and have been for over 50 years! But I forgave YOU after I ate my first one. No matter how LITTLE I mess w a dough, I still feel I’ve overworked it!!
Me, not so much (baking in New Orleans in July is for the certifiably insane). The pies were good–not fab. My peaches started going bad before they were ripe. They weren’t tasty to begin with.
We’d driven 2 hours for Alabama’s Chilton County peaches and what HUGE disappointment. Normally we get them from a particular place in Pensacola, but didn’t make it to the beach this year during peach & Silver Queen.
I added 5 spice to the dough (used a combo of sour & crème fraiche) and RUM instead of bourbon. The dough needed a little sugar. I’ll stick to other desserts that I do rock! I combined 1/2 &1/2 AP/Almond flour. I ended up w 1.5 oz. chopped peach and have about a cup of filling left over. Probably enough to do 1/2 batch of dough; which I’M NOT!
Finally made these…love them!!!! Used Miyoko’s cashew butter and vegan sour cream, and subbed 1 cup emmer flour for 1 cup AP, and it all worked great. Would also use 100% whole wheat pastry flour in the future. To ensure crispy bottoms, look for deeper golden coloring spots on top. My first tray, which I see now was under-baked, was disappointing. A longer bake made all the difference: flaky, tender, crisp bottoms and tops.
Tested the sugar-sprinkles, but preferred a glaze drizzle (powdered-sugar + lemon or lime juice). But I always prefer a glaze drizzle.
Don’t fret if you don’t have or like bourbon. I couldn’t taste the 1 tsp so added 2 more, and only after a day of resting in the refrigerator could I taste the bourbon. When baked, it disappeared.
I have been making these fresh for breakfast for the past 3 days, and the dough is still good…it’s been in the refrigerator the whole time. We will have one or two more breakfasts from this. Next time, going to try with plums.
Just wondering if I can use frozen peaches?
Would love to see this updated with metric measurements! Measuring flour by the cup stresses me out 😅
Hi,
I would like make these hand pies for Mother’s Day but peaches are out of season. Could I use canned peaches instead?
I haven’t tested it with canned peaches but frozen might be a safer swap since they’re not treated at all.
Made these today! I’ve literally never made pie before so this was stretching my baking muscles pretty far. I found the dough to be a huge pain to work with- I had to toss some of it because it totally melted onto the table when I rolled it- but it was totally worth it. It baked like a dream. I had some pretty significant butter chunks in mine which I think added to its dreaminess.
The filling was less ideal but I don’t think that’s the recipe’s fault- my peach choices were “not quite ripe” or “so ripe when I bought them yesterday that now they’re starting to go bad”, so I had to use the unripe ones, lending to less sweetness than anticipated. I added extra sugar but it wasn’t enough to compensate, so the pie was a bit more tart and I’d like. Wish I went out of my way to get fresher peaches. Alas. I did add about half a teaspoon of cinnamon and bumped the vanilla to a teaspoon and the bourbon to a tablespoon; I still found the bourbon barely detectable but the cinnamon is definitely welcome. Nutmeg would go great here but I was out.
All and all delicious, but be picky about your peaches and SUPER patient with the dough. Honestly I’d recommend sitting next to the fridge while you work and keeping anything you aren’t currently working with inside. Note for the record my pies felt tiny at 4” and they looked hideous before I baked them, lumpy and misshapen, but baking hid all the flaws. Even the one with a little hole in the crimping didn’t leak more than a couple of drops of filling.
I assume you can freeze these before baking? If so do you have to thaw before baking? Please advise. Thanks!!
SO many comments! Hoping these freeze well, as I WANT them in my freezer to revisit Colorado Palisade peach season deep in the winter.
I think they’ll freeze very nicely, baked or unbaked.
Oh, I thought so, too after thinking it through. I made a whole tray of them for the freezer, but not before devouring a few that I baked. So delicious! Thanks, Deb.
I would add a couple tablespoons of sugar to the crust next time. And I too would use a food processor – at least to get the butter pieces to the size that I want. With frozen butter, it just took a long time and I probably didn’t get them small enough. I baked for about 30 minutes. I would definitely make them again but freeze most before baking.
Is this still your go-to dough for hand pies? I’d like to make pumpkin cheesecake hand pies and I’m wondering if this dough would be better than the dough in the slab pie recipe. Thanks!
Not always. It’s a little more tender and flaky so it’s nice for small, unheavy pastries but both will work.
Super fiddly dough! I’m on the last chill and haven’t tasted them yet, but I’m hoping for the best for all the effort. Any suggestions on what to do with the rest of the peach filling?