creating space for beauty & simplicity
A few weeks back I had the pleasure of spending the day with Nan.
We spent time in the kitchen baking, ate lunch and drank several cups of tea together.
Visits are so different without Pop but it felt like he was with us all day long.
It’s comforting to Nan that his beautiful carpentry work is throughout my entire home.
We travel from room to room and reminisce as she strokes the many built-ins and woodwork that his hands once touched.
We made these last night for dinner and they were to die for.
True comfort food I tell ya.
Early morning I started a whole chicken in the crock pot and when I arrived home in the afternoon I made the dough and filling. I saved the fun part of constructing the pies for Norah and Chris. They got straight to work rolling out and crimping the dough when they got home.
We make a good team.
I doubled the recipe so there would be plenty of pies to pack in everyone’s lunch the next day with still a few left over to freeze.
Everyone declared that pretty much anything wrapped in that cream cheese dough would be delectable.
So we came up with a list of different fillings we want to try.
Stay tuned…..
my new favorite way to enjoy summer fruits (other than just eating them fresh from the fields) is filling hand pies with them.
i love the simplicity of this recipe and the ease of bringing them along to a picnic or party without worrying about plates and forks.
and they make the perfect breakfast. a homemade pop tart!
summer fruit hand pies
makes about 15 pies
dough
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
filling
your favorite summer fruits cut up or whole mixed with sugar and lemon zest
whisk together flour, soda and powder. with electric mixer beat butter and sugar til fluffy. add egg cream cheese and vanilla until well combined. add flour mixture and beat until smooth. form dough into ball and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
pull out dough. on lightly floured board roll into 4 1/2 inch rounds and about 1/8 inch thick. transfer rounds on parchment lined baking sheet to freezer for 30 minutes.
pull out dough rounds and let stand at room temperature for a few minutes. spoon a tablespoon of filling onto one half of round and brush edges with water. fold round in half and fork around edge to seal. repeat with rest of rounds and transfer pies to freezer for 30 minutes.
preheat oven to 375 degrees. pull out pies and sprinkle evenly with sugar. bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. cool on wire rack.
serve warm or at room temperature.
enjoy!