Apple Hand Pies
These Apple Hand Pies are portable and delicious, and bring back memories of those little pies in the grocery store checkout line. You could use this base pastry recipe and mix and match all sorts of pie fillings to suit your tastes and use up seasonal fruit.
Apple Pie: rustic, flaky, tart, and spicy. The most iconic of American traditions.
These marvelous little pies package up the best parts of apple pie, eliminate a lot of the work, and deliver scrumptious, addictive fruit-wrapped-in-crust that can be stowed away in your pocket for safe keeping.
I originally shared these apple hand pies with you way, way, wayyyyyyy back in the dark ages of 2008. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve made them myself, but when Joseph saw an episode of his favorite show, Hey Duggee, and it featured an apple pie, he proceeded to walk around the house saying “apple pieeeeeeeee” for days and days. He’d never had apple pie; how could I deprive my child of something so delicious?? I immediately thought of these hand pies, since they would be much easier for him to eat than a slice of apple pie, and I got baking!
The dough for this recipe is really just incredible. I admit that I was somewhat skeptical at first, as it contained sour cream. I had never heard or seen sour cream used in a pie or pastry dough before, so it certainly caused me to raise an eyebrow. But like the good trooper that I am, I forged ahead. This dough has such an incredibly buttery, flaky texture, much like that of a laminated dough you would create for croissants. When you bite into one of these pies, the crust just flakes and shatters, which is basically a crust-lover’s dream come true.
I made two modifications to this recipe (and those changes are reflected in the recipe as it’s written below):
- The original recipe required A LOT of time chilling ingredients and the dough at different steps, which I have now condensed a bit. I didn’t find there to be any reduction in the quality of the final crust by doing so. I also made the dough mixing step a little easier to execute, as well.
- I added a little cinnamon to the filling – I can’t believe I left it out originally!
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I couldn’t wait to get these baked and cooled enough for Joseph to try one. When I told him I had made him little apple hand pies, he said, “APPLE PIE?!?!”
I gave him half of one and he went over and sat on the fireplace, took a bite, and said, “Mmmmmmmm!” He polished it off quickly and then requested the other half. I’m so happy that I could make his apple pie dreams come true, ha!
These hand pies are a fantastic option for changing up the traditional slice of apple pie and ice cream and would be especially welcome as a dessert at an outdoor gathering or one that includes small children.
And really, for the kid in all of us – what’s much better than a slice of apple pie that you can pick up and carry around with you?
More Delicious Apple Recipes:
- Jewish Apple Cake
- Homemade Apple Butter
- Dutch Apple Pie
- Classic French Apple Cake
- Easy Apple Crisp
- Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings
Watch How to Make Apple Hand Pies:
If you make these apple hand pies and love them, remember to stop back and give it a 5-star rating - it helps others find the recipe! ❤️️
Apple Hand Pies
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 2½ cups (312.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
- ½ cup (115 ml) sour cream
- 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup (125 ml) ice water
For the Filling
- 2 large apples, peeled, cored and diced small
- ⅓ cup (66.67 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
To Finish
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons water
- Coarse sugar
Instructions
- Make the Pastry: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water. Add to the flour mixture and, using a fork, gently toss and stir together until large lumps form and all of the flour has been moistened. Using your hands, pat the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour (if preparing ahead of time, the dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month).
- Assemble the Pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to ⅛-inch thickness. Using a 4½-inch round biscuit cutter, cut seven circles out of the rolled dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining half of dough. Refrigerate the dough circles for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small pan, combine the apples, sugar, cinnamon and salt, and cook over low heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the apples are tender. Set aside. Prior to preparing the pies, drain any accumulated liquid from the apples.
- Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator. Spoon about 1 to 2 tablespoons filling onto one half of each circle of dough. Brush a little 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 tines of a fork. Refrigerate the assembled hand pies for 30 minutes.
- Bake the Pies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and water for the egg wash. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, and lightly brush with the egg yolk wash. Using a paring knife, cut a few small slits on the top of each hand pie, then sprinkle generously with coarse sugar. Bake until the hand pies are golden brown, anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how thick you rolled the dough. Remove the pies from the oven, and let stand to cool slightly before serving. The pies are best eaten within a day of baking them, but they can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. They can also be wrapped with plastic wrap and placed in a freezer storage bag and frozen for up to 2 months.
Notes
- Feel free to use any type of apple you’d like in this recipe, as it’s quite forgiving. I’ve used Granny Smith, Gala, and Honeycrisps!
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on October 15, 2008.
I do trust all the ideas you have presented on your post. They are very convincing and will definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too quick for newbies. May just you please prolong them a little from next time? Thank you for the post.
The amount of apples called for didn’t even fill 1/2 of the recipe. The 1/8 inch rolled pastry dough wasn’t sturdy enough.
It could have been my error but not quite sure. All I know is this recipe became a time-consuming mess. Sorry for the negative review.
These came out great. This is the best crust I’ve made and I’m wondering if you’ve ever used it for a pie. Thanks for the info.
All these popups its hard to even see your recipe will 2-3 ads covering it. Ik alot of us would appreciate less popup ads
I have never had a pastry crust turn out so amazing! I got perfect lamination and beautiful flakiness for the first time ever! I did use a silpat mat PLUS flour when rolling out because the dough IS pretty sticky. Absolutely thrilled with this recipe and will make again.
Just what I have been looking for so long thanks looking forward to more recipes thanks again!!
Crust was great! My husband is a hand pie aficionado and he loved these!
So good with McIntosh apples. The dough is soft and easy to work with.
I have a soft spot for miniature desserts, and these little pies are simply delightful. The flaky crust is irresistible, and the apples inside are a feast for the eyes
Wow! These are so delicious! Yesterday I made the dough and refrigerated overnight. Today I made the hand pies. Oh, so good!
This recipe is a keeper!
The apple pies were delicious. Thanks for the great recipe. Your son is adorable and love the Pittsburgh Penguin jersey. I grew up about 45 miles from Pittsburgh.
These are delicious! Flaky, buttery pastry and bright flavor of the green apples. Possibly could use a teensy bit more salt in the dough but depends on your taste and what kind of salt you are using.
Great for a portable treat or anytime.
awesome awesome awesome
Yummy apple hand pies, but can I ask something if it’s okay to switch the filling of hand pies into chicken or tuna?
how do you cook these from frozen?
Me and my daughter just made these apple tarts tonight and neither one of us liked them! We were disappointed as everyone mentioned that the crust was wonderful and that they gave it a 5 star because they tasted wonderful, well that is not the case in our experience, we followed the recipe exactly but we thought the crust was extremely buttery and the whole thing just tasted so bland!!I won’t be making these again! We put way too much time into making them followed all the steps and it wasn’t even worth it.thats too bad!
Learn how to bake stop complaining!!!
Awesome recipe! I cut down on the sugar some (as I do on every recipe I make), and also cut the crust into circles and stored them in the fridge overnight, and premade the apple filling, so the next morning all I had to do was fill, seal, and bake them. They were very flaky and were an awesome hit at the party I went to. I would definitely recommend trying!
What are the instructions for baking after freezing?
Made theses the orther days they were delicious 🥰👍
I made these for the first time last night and they were so good. I haven’t worked with pie dough much so apprehensive about how they would turn out. Very happy!
Thank you for sharing this! I had made these a few years ago using blueberries and had lost track of the recipe. So sad! Now so happy again! You ROCK!
I made these apple pies last evening. They were delicious; however, they didn’t look as nice as yours. They cracked. Did I fill them too much? I did slit them. Did I cook them too long? They didn’t get that golden look that yours have. I want to make these again, perhaps, for Mothers’ Day but want them to look pretty. Any tips you can spare would be helpful.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I made these years ago per their original recipe and they were great, but tiring sigh. This time around I used the pastry recipe and did a savory filling with mushrooms and caramelized onions. Boy! Were they fantastic, flaky, scrunchily delicious. The pastry is to die for… thank you!
I was a little afraid of making the pastry but everything about this recipe was SO DARN EASY! The pastry came out beautifully flaky and the pockets are easier/better for a smaller amount of people (made these for Thanksgiving 2020). I’ve already printed the recipe out and I can’t wait to make more!
WOW!!
This is my first time making pie and turned out WAAY better than I thought. I would give this 10 out of 5 stars for the crust alone. The crust ended up being a beautiful golden brown, flaky, buttery, shattery like no other pie crust I’ve had.
The insides were a perfect amount of sweet and warm with cinnamon.
My deviations from the recipe:
I made a half batch of this, halfing all the crust ingredients but doing the full filling ingredients because the comments said they didn’t have enough filling. I ended up with about a tablespoon or two extra filling but just ate it.
I didn’t have a 4.5 inch biscuit cutter and used 4 inch wine glasses instead- finding my rounds were too small, instead of folding each circle in half I layered two on top of another for one pie.
In the beginning my dough seemed a little too dry. I poured some extra water but accidentally spilled too much and compensated by adding in probably 1/3 of a cup more flour.
I was too lazy to bother separating the egg white to make the yolk wash and just beat one whole egg and no water for the egg wash, which turned out just fine.
Useful tips:
1) the extra liquid cinnamon-apple from cooking the apples? pour that in some milk, it’s delicious.
2) if you like your filling a little less mushy and more firm, reduce filling cooking time to 5 minutes.
3) prevent the bottoms from getting burned by layer an extra baking sheet (you can do this for any baking project)
4) this recipe seems pretty flexible, don’t be afraid to leave it in the fridge a little shorter or longer if your schedule is a little hectic, it won’t be detrimental.
5) don’t go by the bake time stated, look for that golden brown color. mine needed 15 more minutes, it all depends on your oven!
7) don’t be afraid to stuff your pies full of filling even if it looks like there’s too much, when it bakes the apples shrink waaaay down and the pies are very good at not exploding.
8) I suggest you double the filling, you will need it with only a little leftover that you can make good use of as some fuel while you’re toiling!!
9) don’t feel like you need to buy biscuit cutters or anything, large wine glasses are fine!! (these aren’t biscuits where you need that sharp edge to let them rise, you’ll be pinching the crust together anyways!
I have been craving apple since the fall season started. My spouse brought home an oven baked one last night. It didn’t hit the spot, but it gave me inspiration. I have never baked a pie and not much of a baker. However, your recipe made me feel as if I I had been baking forever as I followed it about 98%. I had no mixer, but used a potato masher and I didn’t have “course” sugar. But sparingly sprinkled brown sugar. I made them with mostly organic ingredients and I must say, my… (I mean your) apple pie pockets can sell. My children and spouse loved them. In addition, I ran out of apple filling but sliced one banana for 5 pies. They were still delicious to me. I most of all loved how everything I baked were not overly sweet. Most of all, there was something about how moist and light the dough was.
Oh my goodness baby Joseph was sooooo adorable. Still is adorable but taller and boyishly handsome now. Time sure flies. You especially see it in kids as they grow.
Pies look amazing.
Could I leave out the lemon juice? One of my kids hates any hint of lemon flavor.
i made this and you can’t taste the lemon really.
Made these this afternoon and they are delicious! I was a little hesitant about the addition of sour cream and lemon juice. But the crust was so flaky and rich. All I had on hand were Ambrosia apples, which are quite sweet. So didn’t need to add any sugar. Thank you so much for this lovely recipe. I will be making these again!
Excellent hand pies! I baked a few right away and froze the rest. They were all excellent, especially with vanilla ice cream. I like that I can freeze a bunch and bake a few in the toaster oven whenever I get a craving. I added a splash of bourbon to my apples while cooking. ;-)
Do you bake them first and then freeze, or do you freeze them unbaked , then thaw, and bake when thawed? If the former, do you have to thaw them before reheating? Or reheat from frozen? Thanks for any info!