S'more Hand Pies

The crisp fall air is giving me fond memories of huddling around a campfire and enjoying the BEST of all campfire treats: s’mores. Sure, you can make s’mores in the microwave but nothing can beat the taste of a marshmallow fresh out of the fire, sandwiched with chocolate and graham cracker.

I kept this in mind while I decided what I was going to bake this week. Now, as anyone who follows my blog regularly knows, my baking schedule has been a ‘little bit’ off. And by ‘off’, I mean not regular at all. But at work we are having a bake off and my number was up this week.

The contest was simple: weekly groups of three competing over creating baking standards. We’d had a week with: brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, and squares. I actually (completely randomly!) chose ‘Baker choice’. I was happy to have the freedom but with so many baking categories already completed, I was kind of pulling a blank on what I wanted to do.

Hand pies have been on my radar for a while. They’re popping up in a lot of magazines and a recent episode of the Food Networks Eat Street featured Oh my! Pocket pies. They’re very trendy right now although my Mother does like to point out that they’re an over glorified turnover (Yes, I have pointed out the different pastry: pie vs. puff). Whatever way you want to look at it (Or what your opinion may be), they’re still something worth trying out. You can pick whatever classic pie flavor you’d like or try something more updated which is the route I chose.

So I set out to find a recipe similar to that served by Oh my! Pocket pies! I was surprised to see that many blogs hadn’t tackled hand pies yet. The few recipes that I could find were just based off the Betty Crocker recipe. I would much rather prefer to make my own pie crust. I also, as always, did my own spin on the recipe which I’ll write below. I made my Mother’s traditional pie crust recipe which includes such ingredients as a ‘pinch of sugar’ and ‘a little salt’, not very helpful for someone trying to recreate. So I’ve written out Dorie Greenspan’s recipe below.

The pastry on these hand pies turned out so flaky and light. It was a lot lighter then a turnover would be (See Mom? Kidding!). I thought they looked like little pierogies which I hope will make my polish boyfriend proud:). I cut the hand pies out with a 3 inch cookie cutter but if you are going to fold them over like I did: you can definitely use a 4 inch cutter or larger. I sampled the one I cut for the picture below and was disappointed that it just tasted like chocolate. But I later tried another, after is had cooled, and you could definitely taste some of the marshmallow.

I will definitely experiment more with hand pies in the future. I loved the way these turned out and will be looking forward to hearing if my co-workers enjoy them as well.

Pie Crust:

3 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups cold butter, cubed

6 - 8 tablespoons cold water

Coating:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

½ cup sugar

6 tbsp melted butter

Filling:

1 cup marshmallow cream

4 tbsp softened cream cheese

4 tbsp sugar

1 cup dark chocolate chips

For the pie:

Put flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the cubes of butter into the flour mixture. You should be left with pea sized pieces of butter when fully cut in. Begin adding water in until dough forms a rough ball. Put into an air tight container and refrigerate overnight.

For the filling:

Mix together softened cream cheese and sugar. Add marshmallow cream and chocolate chips.

For the coating:

Put the graham cracker crumbs and granulated sugar in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a separate bowl.

Directions:

I rolled my pie crust out and cut them with a 3 inch round cookie cutter. Brush only the outside with melted butter then dip the side coated in butter into the graham cracker mixture. Place a small amount of filling in the center of the pastry disc (Do NOT overfill: the pies will pop open while they are baking. I know it's tempting to stuff 'em full of the good stuff!). Gently fold over so that dough forms a small pocket. Seal edges using a small fork or with your fingers.

Bake at 425°F for 9 to 12 minutes or until pies are browned.

Yields about 24 mini hand pies.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

The fall season has its own range of ingredients and spices. One of these staples is: pumpkin.

Pumpkin has been stereotyped as something that can only be had in the fall which is a shame. There are so many baked goods with pumpkin that are just delicious!

I was in the grocery store and spotted some pumpkin puree. It’s not always easy to find it year round, so I picked up two tins. It didn’t take me long to find a use for it. In this months food network magazine there was a recipe for pumpkin bread pudding. Sold! I cut down the cream to half of what was called for (replaced by milk) and used challah bread. The result was a classic bread pudding, warm with pumpkin and spices, and given a kick with the ginger. We served it with some praline and cream icing and it was definitely a hit.