Raspberry Heart Shaped Hand Pies

Valentine's Day is just about a week away and my eyes have been drawn to all things heart-shaped lately. And so the little "sweetie pies" on The Farm Chicks blog practically leapt right off the page. Not only for their shape but the fact that they're made with pie dough. I love pie dough and always say it's the best part of whatever pie I've made with it. I absolutely had to make these.

The recipe they give, though, is really more of a method since it uses store bought dough. But, no matter because I have a great recipe. I also own a set of heart shaped cutters although I really only used the largest one for these. A little store bought raspberry jam and I was ready to make these lovelies. Enjoy!










Ingredients
(Inspired by The Farm Chicks blog)
2 1/4 Cups all purpose flour
2 Sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup ice water
3/4 Cup seedless raspberry jam (approximate)
Powdered sugar for dusting

Combine the butter, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a food processor with a steel blade and pulse just until it resembles course crumbs. Slowly pour in the ice water and pulse just until combined and a dough ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Roll out the dough on a well floured surface and cut out an equal number of heart shapes. Re-roll the scraps to create more cut outs.  If you're using a large, 4" cutter, add about an ounce of jam to the center of half the hearts. Use less jam for smaller heart shapes. Wet the edges of the heart with water and place a second heart shape on top. Press down the edges with the tines of a fork to seal.

Place the filled heart shapes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the pastry is a light golden brown. Allow them to cool to room temperature and dust with powdered sugar. The number of hand pies you get will depend on the size cutter you use. My 4" cutter yielded about a dozen finished pies.

Note that I used my standard pie dough but doubled the sugar.  For a tutorial on working with homemade doughs, click here.