Blueberry Hand Pies (22)

 

This recipe was a 2-in-1 for me. I've been wanting to try KA's recipe for "Fast and Easy Puff Pastry." These hand pies looked delicious, and are made using that pastry. As you can see from the score, we were not disappointed. 

I don't know about you, but when someone says "make puff pastry" I have an internal shudder. It seems so daunting. Admittedly, this recipe is not a full puff, but is a fantastic shortcut for some pretty delicious dough.

I began by whisking together the dry ingredients. Then "working in" the butter for a few minutes, until it was in pea sized pieces. Then I stirred in the sour cream. Easy peasey. The next step tells you to turn this mixture out, and bring it together with "a few quick kneads". PANIC. The contents of the bowl at this point are pretty much still a loose flour consistency. How am I supposed to bring that together with a few kneads?? I scrolled down to the middle of the recipe where they include a little blog entry titled "Perfecting your technique". They always have pictures of the recipe posted there. And what do you know, hers was dry as a bone too. 

I took a leap of faith and turned it out onto the countertop. I didn't knead so much as squish this mixture together several times, and then it actually did come together into a dough. Crisis averted. Then I gently pressed it into a rectangle and folded (x2) per the directions. Then it was wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the fridge for 30 minutes to re-solidify that butter. 

During that 30 minutes, I made the filling. 2 cups of frozen blueberries, 2.5 Tablespoons of cornstarch, sugar, salt, and lemon juice were all stirred together in a sauce pan. I cooked and stirred until the mixture was not longer cloudy, and quite thick (about 5 minutes just like the recipe said). At this point I sampled the filling and thought it tasted a bit like cornstarch. It was VERY thick and I was questioning the wisdom of using cornstarch vs gelatin. I think next time I will try the gelatin. I placed the filling into the fridge to cool. 

After 30 minutes, I preheated the oven, prepared my pan, and retrieved the filling and dough. It took an obnoxious amount of time for me to roll out the dough, trim the edges, measure the squares and make the cuts. About 10 minutes, actually. I really wanted all the squares to be the same size. And they nearly were. Next time, I'm just going to make them round. I own circle cutters, not square ones. 

I divided the filling evenly among the eight squares. These will be the bottoms of the pastry. The remaining eight squares were slitted in the middle. These will be the tops. I brushed the edges of the bottoms with egg wash, then covered each one with a top piece. Then I realized my dilemma. I had not separated any the pieces after cutting them. They were all still touching on all sides and impossible to crimp. Moving a filled, flimsy pastry proved a messy nightmare. Word to the wise... after you cut the squares, assemble like this: place the bottoms on the sheet pan. Fill. Egg wash. Top. Seal. Crimp. You're welcome. 

I brushed the tops with some egg wash, put on the sanding sugar and placed them in the oven for 20 minutes. And voila! Done. Or so I thought. I made a rookie mistake and let the extra browning from the egg wash fool me into thinking they were cooked through. They nearly were, but as you can see from the picture, the dough was still a bit undercooked where it touched the filling. Drat!

The filling amount was perfect. Not too skimpy, but didn't explode out the slits. The dough did have a bit of flaky texture (and would have had more if cooked properly). The texture from the sanding sugar was a great crunch. The dough was buttery and the blueberry was sweet. There was a little lemon juice in there, but my only improvement to the recipe would be adding lemon zest to the filling to cut through the sweet, rich flavors. 

I can't wait to try this pastry for other recipes, and I will definitely be making these pies again. They were a real treat. 

Scores (out of 5): Dustin:5. Breanna: 4.5. Michael: 4. James: 4.5. Andrew:4. Total 22/25

 https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/blueberry-hand-pies-recipe