A Flaky and Delicious Savory Handpie

Inspiration comes from many places. I get newsletters from a few cooks and bakers and sometimes I use the recipes that are included. A few days ago my email had a newsletter from Lukas Volger in Family Friend and the recipe was for a filo, blue cheese and spinach dish which he was suggesting as a vegetarian entree for Thanksgiving. It is something that you can make the filling for ahead of time, the dish can bake at the same time as rolls or even a casserole, and it would also taste fine at room temperature.

As is often the case, I used this as a jumping off place for my own dish. I had most of the filling ingredients on hand except for the leek and the parsley, but I didn't have any filo dough. I had the frozen spinach, ricotta, and blue cheese, but I also had one leftover chicken thigh, already grilled, that needed using up...so this wouldn't be vegetarian. I had a roll of ReadyCrust pie dough, so that was an easy substitute for the missing filo. This also meant that I didn't have to use any melted butter.

I used half an onion instead of the leek, some dried thyme instead of the parsley, and I made this as two large hand pies. You can cut each of them in half to serve, so this serves four and uses half the quantities of the filling. It does take a bit of work, but I think you'll enjoy this entrée. The photos show the baked but uncut hand pie. If you are really hungry, don't cut them...in which case this recipe will serve 2, not 4. I served ours with a mixed greens salad with lots of veggies in it and a balsamic dressing. The sharpness of the dressing was a good foil for the fairly rich and cheesy filling and buttery crust.

You can make this vegetarian by leaving out the chicken. If you make this after Thanksgiving and you roast a turkey, you can make small cubes of cooked turkey to replace the chicken and it will still be delicious...and use up some leftover turkey!

Spinach and Blue Cheese and Chicken Hand Pies
based on the Spinach & Blue Cheese Phyllo Pie in Lukas Volger newsletter Family Friend

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5 oz. frozen spinach, thawed
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
black pepper to taste
2 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1 cooked chicken thigh, cut into 1-inch dice
1 round ready made pie pastry like Pillsbury ReadyCrust, at room temperature
1 teaspoon flour
egg wash of 1 egg plus 1 teaspoon water, beaten together

In a skillet over medium heat add the oil once the skillet is hot. Add the chopped onion and the salt and stir to coat with the oil. Cover and steam for about 5 minutes, then uncover and continue cooking until the onion is soft, 5-7 minutes more. Set aside.

Drain the thawed spinach and then squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Add to the onion mixture and stir. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, then whisk in the ricotta until smooth. Add the  thyme, black pepper, blue cheese, chicken and spinach/onion mixture and combine. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pie dough circle. Using a rolling pin, increase the size to about 12-inches in diameter. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, divide the dough in half, cutting across the middle.

Take one of the half circles and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Mound half the spinach filling mixture on the one side of the half circle, leaving a little more than an inch of uncovered dough all the way around. Flip the half with no filling over the half with filling, matching the straight side with straight side and the curved side with curved side. Use a pastry brush to brush some egg wash on the uncovered dough next to the filling. Press the top dough down all around to seal all sides. Use the tines of a fork to press the edges to seal completely. Use the pastry brush to coat the top of the hand pie  and the sealed edges with egg wash.  Cut a steam slit of about an inch and a half in the center top.

Repeat with the second half circle and the rest of the filling.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling bubbles a bit at the steam vent. Cool for about 10 minutes. Slice each hand pie in two to make two pie wedges. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

For a vegetarian version, omit the chicken.

Hand Pies

The summer after I met Sweetie, while we were still living in the East Bay, we decided to go down to the Berkeley pier for the 4th of July fireworks. It was a long time ago, so I don't really remember all the details, but I believe that we were planning on watching the distant fireworks at Crissy Field in San Francisco. At any rate, we didn't actually see any fireworks because the fog rolled in, a pretty heavy fog at that, which meant that you could only see the occasional glow in the fog.

Still, we had a good time. We were newly in love and that puts a shine on almost everything. As part of our picnic I made peach hand pies. They are perfect for picnics because you don't need anything other than your hand and your mouth to eat them...and maybe a napkin to catch any dripping juices.

Yesterday I made hand pies in a slightly smaller size for a dinner party in Healdsburg. There are so many ripe fruits available right now that it was difficult to only make two flavors, but that seemed like the right thing to do so that everyone could have one of each flavor. I made peach-blackberry little pies, which were the favorite, and raspberry pies which were a bit too tart. Next time I will add just a little sugar to the cornstarch mixture and I think I'll make larger hand pies, too. These leaned too heavily in the direction of crust with not enough room for enough fruit. That works if crust is your main delight in pies, but I love the fillings.

These take some time to make, as do most things that have a lot of hand work. Use your favorite pie crust recipe or just buy some already made pie crust sheets.

Use the season's ripe fruit. If the fruit is tart, add some sugar to the cornstarch-flour-bread crumb mixture...about 2 tablespoons unless the fruit is very tart. Make sure the fruit is in fairly small pieces so that you can fit a little more in. Large pieces of fruit leave a lot of empty holes in the filling.

Most fruit will release juices when they cook, which is why we use the cornstarch mixture. It helps turn the juices into a thick sauce. If you prefer pies which spurt juice when bitten into, you can skip the cornstarch mixture. In the photo above, the raspberries have been shaken with the cornstarch mixture. They still released a little juice, but no too much.

There are at least two shaping methods. I used the 'fill half, then fold and seal' method, but you can also use the 'fill the middle and top with another piece of dough' method. In both methods, the dough edge is moistened with a thin sheen of water before the sealing. Both also use the tines of a fork to seal the edges further, and to give a nice finish to the hand pie. As you can see in the photo above, I used the fold and seal method.

For the best looking hand pies, glaze with beaten egg, then sprinkle with sparkling sugar right before baking. Don't forget to cut a short slash in the middle to allow steam and excess juices to escape during baking.

Maybe you'll decide to make these for your own 4th of July party or picnic or dinner and to keep the tradition going that way. Happy Baking!

Fruit Hand Pies
Elle's recipe
makes 12 small hand pies

Two-crust pie crust recipe or box of pre-rolled pie crusts like Pillsbury Ready Crust
3-4 cups fresh fruit, peeled, seeded, cut into small pieces as needed
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup dry plain breadcrumbs (not seasoned)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
sugar to taste - depends on the tartness of your fruit
1 egg for egg wash
Sparkling sugar if desired, for top

Roll out the pie crust dough to 1/8 inch thick and then cut out 3 /12 to 4-inch circles. Put the scraps together and knead once or twice, then roll out again as needed so that you have six circles of dough from each half of the pie crust dough.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, breadcrumbs, cornstarch and salt. Add sugar to taste.

Place six circles of dough on a piece of baking parchment or foil. Mix about half of the cornstarch mixture into half the fruit in a medium bowl, then place a tablespoon or two of the fruit on half the dough circle. Leave about 1/2 inch around the edge with no filling.

Using a wet, clean finger, coat the edge of the dough with a thin film of water, all the way around the circle. Fold the unfilled half over the filled half and press down to seal the edge. Use the tines of a fork to seal the half-circle edge (see photo above to see how they look baked and sealed that way).

Repeat with the remaining six dough circles and more fruit. There may be leftover fruit, which can be used in other recipes.

Place the hand pies, still on the parchment or foil, on one or two baking sheets. Glaze with an egg wash consisting of the egg whisked with one tablespoon of water. Use a pastry brush to apply the glaze, then sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon sparkling sugar over the tops of the hand pies.Slash the tops with a small sharp knife (slash is about 1/8-inch and lets steam and juices escape as pies bake).

Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 10-12 minutes. Crusts should be golden brown and juices may be leaking from the slash in the top. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Can be stored at room temperature for 1 day. Refrigerate any leftovers in a sealed container.

Pie

A few years ago my nephew and sister interviewed my Mom, asking her questions about many things, including how things were when she was growing up. One of the things I remember from her answers was her description of food shopping in New York City. She lived in the Bronx in an apartment and this was before there were super markets. Instead of a huge store with all kinds of foods for sale, there were lots of small stores that specialized in meat, staples like beans and rice and flour and sugar, fruit and vegetable sellers, and so on. She mentioned that people generally didn't bake much because it was so convenient to by baked goods at bakeries. The exception in her family was pies. Her mother apparently made great pies. I think she inherited that skill because my Mom makes exceptional pies. My Dad's favorite dessert was always fruit pies, with the fruit changing according to what was in season.

I enjoy making pies, too, especially small pies. It isn't that I don't enjoy full sized pies, but there is something winsome about a personal pie, sized just for one. Sometimes I make mini-galettes, a kind of open faced little freeform pie, made without a pie pan. Sometimes I use a tart pan and make small tarts. A favorite is hand pies where you fold the dough over the filling and seal it...and it is always a small pie to fit your hand. Today I made some mini-galettes and one hand pie (although the hand pie was a bit larger than usual).

I used the apricots that Sweetie bought out on Highway 12 from the strawberry farm for some of the galettes. I used some plums from our tree for others. The hand pie had sliced strawberries from that farm near the Grange.

They all had 'moondust' on the bottom to soak up the fruit juices that are released when the fruit heats up.

It's a combination of almond flour and amaretti crumbs which give a nice almond accent to the fruit, plus flour and sugar. It's one of the secrets from Chez Panisse. When baking the galettes or hand pies, it's also helpful to use a baking or pizza stone if you have one because, for these small pies, the crust is just amazing! It's tender, buttery, and flaky. If you bake the pies on the hot stone in a hot oven the bottom crust is also nicely crisp.

When I was a girl and wanted to learn how to make pies, the first thing I had to do was to read about 6 pages in The Settlement House Cookbook on making pie crust dough. Then my Mom quizzed me on what I had read. That may seem like a bit much, but , truly, pie crust dough making is all about technique. Too much working of the dough and it gets tough. Too little water and it is hard to roll out. Too warm a water and the butter starts to change consistency, so you lose the flakiness. I like this Galette Dough recipe from Chez Panisse because they divide the butter and cut 1/3 of it in very fine for tenderness, then cut in the rest so that butter pieces are larger, for flakiness.

This crust is phenomenal. If you follow the recipe carefully you will have mini-galettes (or a large galette if you prefer) that everyone will rave over. If you pack them carefully you will have an excellent dessert for any picnic or for 4th of July gatherings. For the 4th you can combine white peaches, blueberries and raspberries for the fruit. Just remember to make extra because one barely seems like enough...they are that good! You can even think fondly of my grandmother when you bake yours...I do.

Now don't be shy. You can make a cherry pie, or an apricot one, or peach, nectarine, raspberry, blackberry and so on. It's the perfect time of year for it and here is the perfect recipe.

Fruit Galette
An open face tart/pie with fruit filling, from Chez Panisse Fruit
10 oz. galette dough, rolled into a 14-inch circle ( or into 4 6-inch circles for mini galettes), and chilled (see recipe below)
1/4 cup almond-amaretti powder (see recipe below)
1 1/2 pounds ripe fruit, single or a mixture.
                Apricot, nectarine, peach, plum, pluot, apple, cherry, or any kind of berry are all good
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place a pizza stone, if you have one, on a lower rack.

Remove the prerolled dough from the refrigerator or freezer and place on a buttered or parchment-lined baking sheet. Evenly sprinkle the almond-amaretti powder over the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2 -inch border unsprinkled. (For mini-galettes, leave about 1 inch unsprinkled.)

Cut the fruit in half, quarters, or slices, making sure to remove any pits. Peel fruit if desired. Arrange the fruit (skin side down if there is skin) in concentric circles on the dusted dough, making a single layer of snugly touching fruit pieces and leaving the border bare.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the fruit evenly. (For the mini-galettes, use 1 tablespoon sugar, sprinkled, for each of 4 mini-galettes.) (Note: my fruit was so ripe that I used about 1/4 teaspoon per mini-galette.) While rotating the tart, fold the border of exposed dough up and over itself at regular intervals, crimping and pushing it up against the outer circle of fruit, creating a containing rim that resembles a length of rope. Pinch off any excess dough. This rim must act as a dam, preventing juices from escaping while cooking, so make sure there are no folds or wrinkles that would permit such a breach. Brush the border gently with melted butter and sprinkle it with 2 tablespoons of sugar. (For mini-galettes, create the rope border, as described above, for each one, brush with melted butter and sprinkle each with 2 teaspoons sugar.) (Note: I didn't create the rope, just folded the dough into pleats as I went around the galette.)

Bake in the lower third of the oven, preferably on a pizza stone) for about 45 - 50 minutes (25 - 30 for the mini-galettes), until the crust is well browned and its edges are slightly caramelized. As soon as the galette is out of the oven, use a large metal spatula to slide it off the baking sheet or parchment paper and onto a cooling rack. This keeps the pastries from steaming and getting soggy. Let cool for 20 minutes.

If desired, glaze the tart by brushing with melted, strained jam or jelly. Apricot or apple is traditional for light fruits, raspberry or currant for darker fruits. Let the glaze set before serving the tart(s).

 

 Almond-Amaretti Powder (Moondust)

1/4 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup amaretti, pulverized

Toss all the ingredients together. Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, this keeps for a few months. One galette uses 1/4 cup (1/4th) of this recipe.

Galette Dough

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
7 tablespoons ice water

Follow the directions carefully. This is one of those recipes where the technique and quantities really affect the outcome.

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of the small dice of  butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, mixing until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal. (Butter is dispersed throughout the flour in tiny pieces makes the dough tender.)

Cut in the remaining 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of the small dice of butter with the pastry blender, just until the biggest pieces of butter are the size of large peas - or a little larger. (These bigger pieces of butter in the dough make it flaky.)

Dribble 7 tablespoons of ice water (that's 1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon) into the flour mixture in several stages, tossing and mixing between additions, until the dough just holds together. Toss the mixture with your hands, letting it fall through your fingers. Do not pinch or squeeze the dough together or you will overwork it, making it tough. Keep tossing the mixture until it starts to pull together; it will look rather ropy, with some dry patches. If it looks like there are more dry patches than ropy parts, add another tablespoon of water and toss the mixture until it comes together.

Divide the dough in half, firmly press each half into a ball, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, pressing down to flatten each ball into a 4-inch disk. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. (The dough will keep in the freezer for a few weeks.)

When you are ready to roll out the dough, take one disk from the refrigerator at a time. Let it soften slightly so that it is malleable, but still cold. Unwrap the dough and press the edges of the disk so that there are no cracks. On a lightly floured surface roll out the disk into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Brush off excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush. Transfer the dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate at least 1/2 hour before using. (the rolled-out circles can be frozen and used the next day.)

Makes about 20 oz. dough, enough for 2 open galettes or tarts or 1 covered tart or 12 mini galettes.

Timeless Goodness

One of the nice things about going back East to visit at my Mom's is that I often get to talk cooking with family members who are equally passionate about food. In some cases I'm pretty sure they are more passionate than I am.

One of these is NoHandle and he offered to do another of his wonderful guest posts. Read on and find out what he has put together because I think you will find this the perfect thing to bring on picnics, as we did.

NoHandle writes:
It all started as I was reading “The Minstrel Boy” a sequel to “Blue Bells of Scotland” by Laura Vosika. The tale is about medieval Scotland, at least in part, and they talked about a portable meal called a Bridie, which seemed to be the Scottish version of the Pastie, but without potatoes or other root vegetables. The author of Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie, hails from the place in Scotland where these are famous. One suggestion for the origin of the name is that these were popular finger food at wedding celebrations.

I was casting about for something to blog about, and I had an up-coming pot-luck party to provision, so this looked like a great opportunity. I also had some leftover puff pastry sheets, called for in one of the recipes, so using them was another plus. If you are unfamiliar with Bridies or Pasties (I was) I will tell you that it is a light dough surrounding a seasoned ground meat center. It takes a bit over an hour to prepare, with most of the time devoted to baking the finished product. I should also warn you that sampling the meat before adding it to the pastry can be addictive. It is an experience much like tasting raw cookie dough, if you swing that way, but meat-based and cooked. You have been warned.

I have blended this recipe (“Forfar Bridies”) from two sources, both claiming a measure of authenticity. The differences are minor, and reader comments were incorporated too.

The first thing you should do is defrost the pastry sheets. This is said to take about 40 minutes, but may be 10 minutes less. Once that is started, I saute the onions in a cast iron skillet, although the original recipes called for cooking the meat first. I also chose ground beef for the first try, mostly because I'm the only one in the household who likes lamb. I'm going to try a blend next time, with other consumers. Once the onions are soft, add the ground meat and seasonings. When the meat is browned, drain most of the fats and juices (it's mostly fat) and add the flour, stirring it around to form a roue. Then add the beef stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Check the taste, adding salt and pepper if needed (I go light on the salt and heavier on the pepper, but that's just me). This would be a good time to pre-heat the oven to 375. Remove the skillet from the heat and let the meat mixture cool while you prepare the pastry sheet(s).

The recipe calls for ½ cup of the meat mixture for each Bridie, and thinks you can get six from a frozen pastry sheet. I couldn't; I may have used a few more ounces of beef, but the pastry was a problem. I was able to build four full size Bridies and one demi-Bridie from the scraps. This is where indulging in tasting may pay off, you don't need as much filling. On my second attempt, I managed five full-sized ones.

The other issue is fitting ½ cup of filling in a six-inch round of pastry dough. I had to stretch the dough some to even partially seal the product, and even then it was, shall we say, rustic. This is not a bad thing, as the filling must be vented anyway and this just adds to the venting opportunities to the two or so holes where you pierce the dough. If Peter Pan walked up to a passel of Bridies, he would recognize the ones with two vents as containing onions, and those with a single vent as being “plain”.

You can be creative here so people can distinguish different fillings, if you choose to make more than one kind, like one vent for beef and two for lamb. If you want to make the entire thing from scratch (of course you do), a flaky pie crust is said to work well, and will provide plenty of pastry. Another option is to make more smaller ones; I suspect that three-inch circles would take a tablespoon or so of filling, perhaps two. This size would be better as cocktail snacks as a full Bridie would be enough for a lunch for many. Let me know if you find a size and proportion that works better for you.

Once the pastries are sealed (using the usual water method) apply an egg white wash, and bake for about 35 minutes. Remove when “golden brown and delicious.” Serve as quickly as you can, especially at altitude. They are best piping hot. If there are leftovers, you can freeze them in individual plastic bags and reheat in the microwave. About two minutes should do it. Leave them right-side up when reheating or the pastry will get flattened and a bit soggy; they will still taste great.

The Bridie was the Hot Pocket® of it's day, and can be eaten that way today. Enjoy!

The Bridie
makes about 5-6 lunch sized Bridies

Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 12 ounces ground lamb (or beef, or a combination)
• 1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 
2 tablespoons beef broth
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tablespoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1 package or frozen puff pastry or 1 recipe flaky pastry for double-crust pie
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Directions:
In a large heavy skillet (I prefer cast iron) over medium heat, saute the onion. Add and cook lamb (or beef) until evenly brown; drain excess fat. Add the flour and stir for a minute or two. Remove from heat, and stir in beef broth, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Allow the meat mixture to cool for about 20 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry out to 1/8 inch thickness (or unfold thawed puff pastry sheet). Cut into 6 inch rounds. Place approximately 1/2 cup filling on each. Stretch and fold the pastry over the filling, and crimp edges to seal. Brush lightly with beaten egg white, and cut two or three slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Place on a lightly-greased (baking spray will do) baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

To take on a picnic, bring in an insulated bag, or put into a casserole, wrap that in newspapers and put into a cardboard box lined with crumpled newspaper, or into a cooler and fill in with crumpled newspaper.