Description
These spiced apple and blackberry hand pies are a delicious, easy-to-make dessert featuring a flaky shortcrust pastry filled with tender apples and juicy blackberries, enhanced with warming cinnamon and honey. Perfect for an afternoon treat or dessert, these pies bake to golden perfection with a sweet, bubbling filling inside.
Ingredients
Scale
Fruit Filling
- 2 medium cooking apples peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
- 50 g golden caster sugar
- 150 g blackberries fresh or frozen
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pastry
- 2 sheets shortcrust pastry (320 g total)
- 1 small egg beaten (for egg wash)
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar (for sprinkling)
Instructions
- Cook Apples: Place the chopped apples into a small saucepan, add 50 g golden caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Cover with a lid and cook over medium heat for 8 minutes or until the apples are soft. Transfer the cooked apples to a shallow dish and spread out to cool slightly.
- Mix Filling: In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon cornflour, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon into a smooth paste. Add the blackberries and cooled apple chunks, then gently mix all together to coat evenly.
- Cut Pastry Circles: Unroll the shortcrust pastry sheets. Using a 10 cm round pastry cutter (or a similarly sized ramekin or glass), cut out 12 circles. Reserve any pastry off-cuts for decoration.
- Assemble Pies: Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the fruit filling onto half of the pastry circles, leaving a 1 cm border. Brush the edges with beaten egg. Top each filled circle with a plain pastry circle. Pinch the edges together and seal by pressing with the tines of a fork. Use fingers to form small dents at the top and bottom to create an apple shape.
- Decorate and Vent: Brush each pie with egg wash. Cut small leaf and stalk shapes from the pastry off-cuts and attach them to the pies using egg wash. Poke a small steam hole in the top of each pie using a skewer.
- Chill Pies: Place the prepared pies on a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour (or overnight). Pies can also be frozen at this stage for up to 3 months.
- Bake Pies: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (180 degrees Celsius fan). Bake the chilled pies for 20 minutes or until golden brown and the filling is bubbling through the steam holes. Add 5 to 10 extra minutes to baking time if cooking from frozen.
- Serve: Once baked, sprinkle the hand pies with caster sugar and serve warm with cream or custard if desired.
Notes
- If you don't have a 10 cm round pastry cutter, an upside-down ramekin or a glass of similar diameter can be used instead.
- For make-ahead convenience, prepare pies up to the chilling step (step 6). Store in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or freeze for up to 3 months before baking.
- Using digital kitchen scales ensures accurate measurements, as this recipe was developed using metric weights.
- To achieve a perfect flaky crust, handle the pastry as little as possible while shaping.
- For extra sweetness, serve with a drizzle of honey or a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside the pies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 pie
- Calories: 250 kcal
- Sugar: 16 g
- Sodium: 110 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Saturated Fat: 3 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 36 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 35 mg
