Perfect for breakfast or just for an afternoon snack, our recipe for Fried Apple Hand Pies features lightly sweetened apples with cinnamon folded between a crispy, flaky pie crust. Eat them on a plate with a fork or out of hand; either way, these little turnovers are sure to please.
Also called turnovers, hand pies are made from rounds of pastry dough filled with a delicious filling, doubled over, and fried in butter. In some cultures, hand pies are filled with a savory filling, which is delicious, but these hand pies are made with a fruity, sweet apple filling. Our recipe for Fried Apple Hand Pies will be a good dessert for the family after dinner. Alternatively, some people like to serve these hand pies with sausage or bacon as a breakfast treat.
Fried Apple Hand Pies Recipe
For this recipe, you can use any kind of apple that you have on hand. Whether you have Fuji, Gala, Yellow Delicious, or Granny Smith apples, this recipe will turn out wonderfully with any of them. Dice the apples into small pieces that are less than an inch square. If the apple pieces are too big, the fried pies will be awkwardly shaped and more difficult to eat out of hand.
Equipment
- Medium-Sized Bowl
- Wooden Spoon
- Large bowl
- Wire whisk
- Pastry blender
- Rolling Pin
- Frying Pan
- Slotted Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 pcs Medium Apples
- 2 tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 dash Salt
- 2 cups Flour
- 1/2 cup Shortening
- 2 tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Ice Water
- 6 tbsp Butter for frying
Instructions
- Peel the apples and dice them into a medium-sized bowl. Add the sugar and cinnamon to the apples and stir them with a wooden spoon to coat the apples in sugar.
- Add the dash of salt, and stir the apples one more time. Set the apple pie filling aside.
- Now you can move on to make the pie crust dough. In a large bowl, measure out the flour, salt, and sugar, stirring with a fork or a wire whisk to combine.
- Add the shortening to the mixture and, using a fork, two knives, or a pastry blender, cut the shortening into the flour mixture.
- Continue cutting it into the flour until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Carefully holding the ice back, drizzle about half of the cold water into the flour and shortening mixture.
- Use a fork to stir the water into the flour mixture. When the water is mixed in, add some of the rest of the water about a tablespoon at a time, stirring briefly after each addition.
- When the pie crust dough begins to ball up, sticking to itself and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, use your hands to gather the dough into a ball, pressing it gently so that it sticks together. Shape the dough into a disc.
- Lightly flour a breadboard or a clean-scrubbed countertop. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the pie crust dough into a 14 to 16-inch circle. Use a lid, plate, or bowl as a template, cut rounds out of the pie crust dough. We used the lid of a sour cream container as our template, but anything that is round that is 4 to 6 inches in diameter will work.
- After you’ve cut out the rounds, place 1 or 2 tablespoons of diced apples on half of the pie crust. Fold over the top half of the pie crust and crimp the edges to seal the hand pies. Make three or four hand pies so that you can cook them in batches.
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan over medium heat. When the butter is all melted and just starting to sizzle, pick up the frying pan and rotate it to coat the bottom of the frying pan.
- Place the hand pies in the frying pan and cook them until they are a light golden brown color on the bottom.
- Using a slotted spatula, turn the pies over and fry them on the other side. When the pies are all cooked, remove them to a paper towel-lined platter to drain.
- Press together the scraps of pie dough and re-roll them, cutting out more rounds and creating a second and third batch of hand pies. Fry them as directed above. Serve the hand pies while warm. You can sprinkle them with a bit of powdered sugar, if you like, before serving.
Notes
If you are intimidated by the idea of making a homemade pastry crust from scratch for this recipe, have no fear. While our instructions will make pie crust making easy, the pastry does take a bit of a knack. Therefore, if you would rather, you can purchase a premade pie crust from the dairy case at your local grocery store. This can save you some time and some hassle if you prefer, and it is quite likely that no one will be able to taste the difference.
When you cook the pies, be sure that the butter is hot before you add the pies to the pan. If the butter is not hot enough, the pastry crust will absorb the butter instead of being cooked in the butter. This will make your fried pies soft and greasy rather than firm, flaky, and crispy.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
April Freeman enjoys creating all kinds of recipes for her friends and family from her country kitchen in Middle Tennessee. She and her family raise beef cattle, chickens, and all sorts of fruits and veggies on their farm, and she specializes in featuring farm-fresh foods in the recipes that she creates and serves. April says that her slogan is “Are you hungry?” and she feels that one way of showing love and connecting with others is to serve delicious favorite foods to others. Her favorite thing to cook is pies of all kinds.
