Strawberry Hand Pies, similar to "Pop-tarts"

Some days start off better than others.  On this particular day, I was snack parent for my daughter's school.  It was Pajama Day, and I wanted to make a "breakfasty" snack for the kids.  I chose sausage rolls, hard boiled eggs and watermelon.  Our sausage rolls, are simply a mostly cooked sausage rolled in a pie crust wedge and baked.  They are flaky, buttery and delicious.  SO, I was excited to pass on this scrumptious recipe to our pre-school friends.  For the parents, I wanted to make a fruit tart.  I made a tart shell, pastry cream, and bought A TON of fresh fruit. Well, one thing after another...the day didn't work out.... The oven at the school, that has worked for years, stopped working.  So much for sausage rolls.  And then, after assembling the fruit tart and putting in the fridge to set up, it imploded!  We had cold fruit tart soup.  In the end, my perfectly planned out day ended with me having a lot of homemade pie crust and an overload of fruit.  As far as I could tell, I had one choice, make some homemade "pop-tarts".  I guess everything happens for a reason because these are delicious.  I'm still trying to figure out why these are marketed as a breakfast food, because it's clearly a dessert...but whatever.

This is a recipe that is fairly easy, but it takes some time.  Make the pie crust, let it chill.  Make the jam, let it cool.  Then make the hand pies, and let those cool... finally, you have something delicious!  This recipe is also versatile, you can make blueberry jam, raspberry jam, or mixed berry jam.  Maybe some lemon curd and fresh blueberries, or maybe add some mini chocolate chips to the strawberry jam?  And, the toppings... could be sprinkles, could be crushed freeze dried fruit, could be a chocolate drizzle too.  There are lots of options!  So, get creative in the kitchen!

Strawberry Hand Pies

"Homemade Pop-tarts"

Double recipe of uncooked pie crust, chilled

Strawberry Jam

1 egg mixed with 2 Tablespoons water to make an egg wash

Candy Glaze (optional)

Sprinkles (optional)

Double Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons white sugar

1 tsp. salt

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces and chilled

8 Tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces and chilled

1/4 cup vodka, chilled

1/4 cup ice water

1.  Process 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar and salt in a food processor until combined, about 5 seconds.  Scatter butter and shortening pieces over top and process until incorporated and mixture begins to form uneven clumps with no remaining floury bits, about 15 seconds.

2.  Scrape down the sides of bowl and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade.  Sprinkle remaining 1 cup flour over dough and pulse until mixture has broken up into pieces and is evenly distributed around bowl, 4-6 pulses.

3.  Transfer mixture to large bowl.  Sprinkle vodka and ice water over mixture.  Stir and press dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula, until dough sticks together.

4.  Divide dough into 2 even pieces. Shape each dough piece into a 4 inch disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Before rolling out dough, let it sit on counter for 10 minutes.  (dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to one month.  If frozen then let it thaw out completely before rolling it out)

Strawberry Jam

4 cups strawberries, cut into thick slices

1 cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 T vanilla extract

Combine strawberries and sugar in medium saucepan, and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer for one hour or until thick, stirring from time to time, making sure that the strawberries don't stick to the bottom of the pan.  When jam is thick, and strawberries have broken down turn off the heat.  The mixture should look like jam at this point.  With the heat off, stir in the lemon juice and vanilla extract.  Cool to room temperature.

To assemble the hand pies.

1.  Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.  Roll out the chilled pie crust, use a rectangular shaped cookie cutter to cut out shapes, lay rectangle pie crusts onto an ungreased (non-stick) baking sheet.  Add a dollop of strawberry jam to the center of the pie crust.  Use a fork to prick another rectangular pie crust piece, lay the pricked piece on top of the piece with the strawberry jam.  Crimp the edges together with a fork to seal the jam inside the pie crust layers.  Repeat until all the pie crust has been used.  You will probably have extra jam.  (strawberry pin wheel cookies anyone?)

2.  Brush unbaked hand pies with egg wash, and bake for 20 minutes, or until the hand pies are golden brown.

3.  Let cool before eating!  The jam will be very hot, and could burn your tongue!

OPTIONAL toppings!

Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar

lemon juice

sprinkles

In a small bowl combine powdered sugar with about a teaspoon of lemon juice. Stir to combine, if the mixture is too thick add more lemon juice.  Stir until the glaze is the consistency that you like.  If the mixture gets too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Drizzle the glaze over the cooled hand pies and then add sprinkles!

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