Star Shaped Blueberry Hand Pies

Flaky Pie Dough

The first step is to make your pie dough! There’s a higher crust-to-filling ratio in these hand pies, so we want a crust that tastes GOOD. I recommend using our homemade pie crust with a dash of sugar. This crust is sturdy enough to bake in different shapes and designs. Pies and pie dough may intimidate you, so let’s go over our best pie crust tips and tricks:

1. Use cold butter and ice cold water: Keeping pie dough as cold as possible is essential for pie success! If any ingredient is room temperature or slightly warm, it will make rolling out and working with pie dough almost impossible. Cold dough = perfectly flaky and buttery pie crust!
2. Don’t overwork the dough: With pie dough, it’s best to use a gentle hand. If pie dough is overworked, the crust is dense and tough. If you have to re-roll the dough, try to do this as few times as possible! The more you have to re-roll it, the more tough the pie dough will be.
3. Streaks of butter is ok: Don’t worry if you see chunks or streaks of butter when rolling out your dough! These aren’t imperfections – they’re tiny pockets of buttery goodness that creates those delightful flaky layers we all love in a good hand pie.
4. Stack the dough: A little secret for flaky layers is to take your refrigerated pie dough and cut it in half. Then, stack them before rolling it out! This adds extra flaky layers.

Sweet Blueberry Filling

Blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice. That’s all you need for these blueberry hand pies! Since the pies don’t bake for long in the oven, we need to precook the filling to break down the blueberries. If we used raw blueberries inside pies, they would release too much liquid and not work well. So, we make a blueberry jam that’s full of flavor and doesn’t leak out of the pies!

Blueberry jam is our go-to for any recipe needing a burst of blueberry flavor. From blueberry crumble bars and blueberry-swirl cheesecake cookies to homemade blueberry pop-tarts, its intense sweetness and strong flavor make it the perfect all-purpose filling.

Success Tips For Blueberry Hand Pies

• This recipe can be used with just about any summer fruit! Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches…any of your favorite fruits! You can even use a blend of fruits.
• Don’t have fresh berries? You can use frozen blueberries (or any frozen fruit!) to make the filling.
• Make sure the filling isn’t still hot when you spoon it onto the pie crust! It’s best for it to be room temperature or even cold. If you want to save time, you can even make the filling ahead of time!
• If your hand pies get too warm while you’re assembling them, place them in the freezer for about 15 minutes before baking!