Last year was a bumper crop for wild Minnesota blueberries. I think we picked about 7 buckets in a weekend, maybe more. We picked almost 4 Saturday and were going to head home Sunday after checking game cameras at the land, when we stopped to check out a tip from my mother-in-law to give to my Mom (only family and close friends share blueberry picking locations). Well we picked a bucket easily scouting around, called my mom, and were really going to head home. Well on the way back into town to shower and get ready to go we convinced ourselves to have lunch and head back out for round two. If one bucket was that easy it wouldn’t take long to pick more. And you really never know when the next good blueberry year will be.
So now we’re back at home with 7 buckets – and when I say bucket I mean ice-cream pail – worth of blueberries. And we’re two people. Most of them are going in the freezer, but you know I’m going to make some treats right away. I could bake a pie but again with 2 people in the house one pie is a lot. Until I remembered that a year or so ago for Christmas Derek got me this mini hand pie mold. Why not use my Grandma Forsman’s crust and blueberry pie recipe to make blueberry hand pies. I could bake them, freeze what we didn’t eat and then warm them up in the oven later on. Genius!
Here’s what you need:
That plastic container with the red top my Grandma’s pie crust mix in it. You’ll need that to get started.
Mix together ½ c sugar and ¾ T tapioca.
Follow the crust instructions to make one pie crust at a time and roll out as the recipe directs. Then you’ll use a mini hand pie mold or anything with a rough 4 inch diameter (like a drinking glass or biscuit cutter) to cut circles just like you were making cut-out cookies.
I re-rolled the dough 1 to 2 more times to use the scraps. But beware the dough will get a little tougher every time you do this so limit the amount of times you re-roll. A little scrap dough is ok.
If you have a mold, gently lay one dough circle over a mold. Fill with a tablespoon of blueberries and sprinkle with a little sugar and tapioca mixture, about a teaspoon.
Close the mold.
If you don’t have a mold, just follow the same instructions but make sure to place the berries on half of the dough circle and gently fold over. Crimp the edges with a fork.
The pie mold that Derek got me came with a baking pan designed to fit the hand pies. He actually didn’t realize it when he ordered it (don’t ask me how…) and thought he was just getting the mold. Well I made so many of these that I wanted to keep things moving so I also used a sheet pan with parchment – I’ll show you pictures of both.
If you happen to have a pan like I do, place the filled hand pies in the indentations of the pan. Brush with milk to help them brown.
Sprinkle lightly with sugar, preferably turbinado sugar (coarse sugar).
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes until golden. No matter how good I crimped these, a little blueberry snuck through. Resist the urge to overfill these.
Cool the hand pies in the pan for about 5 minutes. Gently remove from the pan – I used a fork to lift the edges up – and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Here’s how they look baked on a sheet of parchment. The parchment method works just as well, so you don’t have to rush and buy a special pan. In fact, I like it a little better as it can be a little tough to get the pies to release from the other pan.
Serve them up fresh out of the oven. Well let them cool for a few minutes so you don’t burn your tongue on the blueberry filling.
Look at that yummy blueberry filling!
These freeze great. Flash freeze them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Then pop them into a bag. Reheat in a 350 degree oven until warm and crisp. About 7-10 minutes.
These also go great with ice cream – especially the Blueberry Lemon Sherbert recipe I’ll be posting next.
- ½ c sugar
- ¾ T tapioca
- Dough recipe for 4 pie crusts
- 1 ½ c wild blueberries
- Milk
- Turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment, or use a hand pie pan if you have one, no preparation of that pan is needed.
- Stir together sugar and tapioca.
- Roll out pie dough, one crust at a time as directed in your recipe.
- Use a hand pie cutter or anything with a 4 inch diameter like a glass or biscuit cutter, to cut circles in the dough.
- Transfer the dough circles to the handpie mold. Top with a tablespoon of blueberries and sprinkle with a teaspoon of sugar and tapioca mixture. Gently fold over and press mold to crimp. You can do the same thing manually, just crimp with a fork.
- Transfer hand pies to pan. Brush with milk. Sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake for 20 minutes until golden.
- Cool on pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.
- Serve when still warm if desired.
[…] These goes GREAT with mini-blueberry hand pies. […]