Week Thirty-Three: Apple Hand Pies

(This week’s recipe came from “Good Housekeeping Great Baking”.)

Sorry it took so long to get this posted. You wouldn’t believe what moving to a whole new state and starting a brand new job can do to a person! But here it is, finally!

This past Saturday, Rob and I attended our first New Jersey party. It was our friend Jennifer’s birthday, so she celebrated by throwing a Mexican-themed party at her house. Earlier in the week I had planned to bake for her party, and I found a recipe for Apple Hand Pies; little hand-held apple pies with a powdered sugar glaze. Perfect! Once I found out about the Mexican theme, I realized that these little hand pies looked suspiciously like empanadas…what a perfect match!

Baking in a brand new kitchen, with only limited utensils and pots and pans is quite the experience. I brought a lot of stuff with me, but there were times I found myself reaching for something, only to say, “Oh yeah, that’s in storage…”

The recipe started with making a standard two-crust pie dough, which had two tablespoons of sugar added for sweetness. The dough was divided in two and chilled in the fridge. While the dough was chilling, I got busy cooking up the apples for the filling:

When the apples had cooled down, I removed one of the two halves of the dough from the refrigerator and rolled it out fairly thin. Next, I cut out circles from the dough and placed them on a greased cookie sheet. A tablespoon of the apple filling was placed on one half of each circle:

Once each circle was topped with filling, the pies were folded in half. The edges were crimped with a fork and the tops were brushed with egg wash. Finally, two one-inch slits were cut in the top of each pie to allow steam to escape:

The pies were baked for about 20-25 minutes until they were a golden brown color. Once they had cooled down, I mixed up a powdered sugar/water/vanilla/corn syrup glaze to drizzle over them:

They were a big hit at the party, and I really want to make them again sometime. My only issue was that two Granny Smith apples were not quite enough. Next time I’d definitely use three apples at least!

I have no idea yet what I’m baking this week. I should probably make that decision today, because I plan to make a grocery store run tomorrow!