2012 February 14

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I totally meant to post about this earlier. I mean…I made this recipe up over a week ago. Unfortunately work and exhaustion got in the way. But, better late than never, right?

I made a new dessert recipe for Valentine’s Day – Heart-Shaped Mini Pies with strawberry and strawberry/nutella filling.

The recipe features lots of fresh strawberries.

Said strawberries are then stuffed into heart-shaped pieces of pie crust.

The tough part is adding enough of the strawberry filling. I found the overall ratio of pie crust to strawberries to be a bit off, but they were definitely festive. Still, do try to stack your strawberries as high as possible to give a better strawberry flavor.

I cut little arrows into the hearts as my vents and sprinkled sugar on top.

And since the mini hearts are a bit labor-intensive (and I didn’t want to waste any of the dough), I decided to make a large hand-pie of sorts using the remaining pie dough and filling. I made the heart minis with just the strawberries and I added nutella to the hand pie. I wish I had added nutella to all of the pies!

The results were pretty. I love the look of golden-baked dough.

And if you’re feeling really adventurous, you can turn your mini pies into Pie Pops!

Just add a popsicle stick (and maybe some ribbon). I found some at Michael’s in the candy section. I think these would be really cute wrapped in plastic bags with pretty ribbon.

Heart-Shaped Mini Pies {Pie Pops} & a Hand Pie with Strawberry & Nutella Filling

While they aren’t the quickest or easiest project, making these heart-shaped mini pies is a fun activity that you could do with your whole family. Switch up your favorite filling for a different take.

Prep Time: 35 minutes (to make 60-second pie crust and chill the pie crust)
Bake Time: 22-26 minutes
Total Time: 53 – 57 minutes
Serves: 10 Mini Pies and 1 Hand Pie

Ingredients:

1 pie crust (use store-bought or your favorite recipe – I enjoyed this 60-second pie crust recipe)
2 cups strawberries, diced very small
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons tapoica starch (or corn starch)
flour (for rolling out pie crust)
1 egg, lightly beaten
nutella, optional
sanding sugar (for sprinkling on top of the pies)
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, optional
1-2 teaspoons orange juice, optional

Directions:

While your pie crust chills (the recipe I used suggested chilling 30 minutes), combine strawberries, sugar, and tapoica starch in a medium bowl. Stir to combine.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil with a light coat of non-stick spray)
When pie crust is ready, lightly dust a large flat surface for rolling out your dough with flour. Add your pie crust. Rub flour on rolling pin. Roll pie crust out to a pretty thin level (between 1/4 – 1/8 inch thick), turning dough as you go so it doesn’t stick. Use a 2 1/2″ heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out 20 heart-shaped pieces of dough. Set aside remaining dough. Note: You may have noticed I cut some to a smaller size in some photos in this post, but I found the 2 1/2″ version worked better – feel free to use whichever size you prefer.
Move half of the pieces of pie dough to the prepared baking sheet. For each mini pie: Brush dough with egg wash, top with strawberry mixture (try to avoid adding liquid as you go), add about 1/2-1 teaspoon of nutella if using, top with another piece of dough, matching edges and pressing to seal. Press on the edges with the ends of a fork to help seal. Repeat for the rest of the mini pies.
Cut small slits into the tops of each mini pie (I cut little arrows for the Valentine’s Day theme), brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake for 22-24 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
While mini pies bake, prepare the hand pie. Gather the rest of the dough, bring pieces together to one ball, and roll out to about 1/4 inch thick, turning dough and adding flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Note: I left my pie pretty free-form – I didn’t worry about making a perfect circle.
Prepare another baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil with a light coat of non-stick spray). Carefully transfer the hand pie dough to the baking sheet, centering half of the dough (since you’ll be folding it in half soon). Spoon the rest of the strawberry mixture (trying to avoid adding the liquid) to half of the dough, leaving a roughly 1/2 inch border and the other half of the dough. Add about 1/4 cup of nutella, spreading around strawberries, if using. Brush the edge with the egg wash, fold the dough in half pressing the edges to seal. Press on the edges with the ends of a fork to help seal.
Cut small slits into the top of the hand pie (I cut “LOVE” for the Valentine’s Day theme), brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Allow each batch (the mini pies and the hand pie) to cool before eating.
Optional icing step: If you don’t use nutella, you’ll probably want to add a bit of icing. I made a quick icing using a mixture of confectioner’s sugar and orange juice, which I just whisked quickly (starting with about 1 teaspoon of the orange juice and adding more as needed) in a bowl and drizzled over the cooled mini pies.

Mini pies sans icing and without popsicle sticks. These guys didn’t last long in our house.

{LOVE-vents in the top of my hand pie}

I’m not gonna lie…these guys were a lot of work, but I did enjoy making them. This project is better if you’re looking to get your hands dirty and enjoy the experience. Personally, I had fun zoning out and focusing on the creation of something delicious. If you want more instant (or at least faster) gratification, consider just making two hand pies.