Happy Valentine’s Day!
Cynthia’s Valentine blog post earlier this week motivated me to try making something homemade for the sweet hearts in my household. I landed on Nutella and Strawberry Filled Hand Pies, which are always fun to make. (You could also make a savory hand pie for a special dinner instead, if your sweet isn't into sweets.)
It was a busy week with our current CrateChef box by Cynthia Chen McTernan shipping out this week, so I cheated a little with store bought pie crust dough. It made this dessert super easy and fun, and even my youngest got involved with the decorating. Look out Easter, we have big plans!
Supplies:
- Cookie Cutters – 1 large circle or heart
- Cookie Cutters – Small letters or shapes
- Liqui-Gel Food Color Paste (Red and Pink or any color your heart desires)
- Large Cookie Sheet
- Parchment paper
- Basting brush – fine
Ingredients:
- 3 rolls of Pillsbury Pastry Pie Shell Crust
- 1 Tbsp Flour
- ¾ Cup Nutella
- ½ Cup Strawberries, Bananas or Apples
- 1 Egg
Directions:
-
Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Line a flat cookie sheet with parchment paper.
-
Cut one Pillsbury Pastry Pie Shell Crust in half. Then cut one half in half again so that you have 3 pieces, one ½ size piece of pie crust and two ¼ size pieces. Drop 2-3 drops of gel food coloring onto each ¼ size piece to create two colors. If you need more colors you can cut your ¼ size pieces into 1/8th size to create four 1/8th size pieces. You may also need to drop a few drops of water onto each piece to get the color and dough to blend well.
-
Roll your dough out thinner than it comes in the package, to about an 1/8” thickness. I used a large circle cutter (from our Chef Karl Worley CrateChef box) but a large heart would be nice also, or you could even use your pasta rolling cutter from our Chef Frank Bonanno CrateChef box to create your own shapes. Cut approximately 20 shapes (for 10 pies) out of the 2 ½ remaining uncolored Pillsbury Pastry Pie Shell Crusts. Every pie will use two of the shapes.
-
Once cut, flattened the top pie piece just a little more to make it slightly larger than the bottom piece. I then used the small cookie cutters (like the Alphabet set from our Molly Yeh CrateChef box) to create the Valentine designs on top of each one. This is where the fun really begins! We made each one a little differently and you can really let your creative genius soar! (We placed some cut-out designs on top by rubbing the backs of the cut-out with a little water and then sticking them down onto the top design.)
-
In the center of each bottom piece, place 1 Tbsp of Nutella and then mix in strawberries, apples, bananas or cherries. Another option is jam or jelly.
-
Dip a small brush (or your finger) in water and gently rub it around the edge of the pie crust.
-
Before it dries, quickly place the top piece onto the bottom, covering up the filling and lining up the edges together. Push down gently.
-
Use a fork to crimp the edges all the way around the pie.
-
Egg wash the top of each pie. Epicurious has a great article that explains 7 egg washes and how they affect dough differently. It will make you an egg wash pro! We used a whole egg wash for our purposes but we needed a thinner basting brush. Either that or our egg wash basting skills could use some work. No one complained though!
-
For some added bling, sprinkle the tops with some Sparkling Decorating Sugar before baking. We like this one from India Tree, but there are many decorating options to choose from.
- Bake in the oven on a flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
