Blackberry Passionfruit Hand Pies

One summer, my mom and I did a three-week road trip through Utah where I learned two key things: I’m 100% here for dry heat and I will forever love a handpie. What does a handpie have to do with Utah you ask? Well while we were exploring Salt Lake City, we came across a hand pie bakery called Pie Fight. It was a little walk-up-to-the-window shop with a select number of hand pies ready to order. I don’t know why it had never crossed my mind that true, fresh pie could be handheld and I didn’t need to wait until Thanksgiving to have it. Last year when we road-tripped Canada, on Prince Edward Island they had a shop called The Handpie Company, with a mix of sweet but mostly savory pies for the hand. LOVE I tell you. That was what love felt like.

Fast forward to now, I decided it was about time to make my own hand pies. Since, at the time of making this recipe, we’re in fresh fruit season - specifically blackberry - I figured it was our time to shine. I also had a little bit of passionfruit in the freezer that I needed to use so there we have, a match made in fruity, hand pie, heaven.

The passionfruit adds just a touch of sharp sweetness to the berries, letting the fresh blackberries shine through. It’s not an overwhelming flavor but the right balance to brighten the blackberries - kind of like adding coffee to chocolate cake batter, though you can actually taste a hint of the passionfruit in these babies.

So roll out your dough, get your cookie cutter ready, and fill these pies to bursting (no really, they look a little gruesome leaking out when you’re crimping them closed, so much so that you’ll think you’ve failed… you have not) - I want my hand pies bursting with filling, it also gives it a lovely aesthetic, trust me. Prepare yourselves for the flakiest, blackberriest, hand pies your heart will ever desire.

Yields: 14 hand pies
Ingredients:

FILLING

2 cups fresh blackberries
¼ cup passionfruit, frozen and seedless
½ cup sugar
⅛ cup cornstarch
⅛ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

CRUST

2 ⅔ cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter
7-8 tbsp cold water

TOPPING

1 egg
2 tbsp turbinado sugar

Directions:

FILLING

In a pot combine blackberries, passionfruit, and lemon juice, place on the stove over medium heat
Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl and gradually stir into the blackberry mixture
Stir frequently, bringing the mixture to a boil. Allow to thicken at a boil for 4-5 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool completely. Your mixture must be room temperature or cooler before assembling your pies or you risk melting your dough!

CRUST

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add cubed cold butter and using two knives, slice the butter into the flour/salt mixture until it resembles fine grains of sand. You can also add everything to a food processor and pulse until fine if you have one.
Pour in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, stirring the dough between each add. Once you’ve added a few tablespoons, begin compressing your dough with your hands. The butter will start to shape the dough alongside the water so give it some work before adding any more water to the mixture. If it still feels dry and crumbly, add another tablespoon of water, then compress, and repeat as needed.
Once your dough is compressed into a firm ball, wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes or until your blackberry filling is cooled.

ASSEMBLY

Remove your dough from the fridge and cut in half
Roll one of the halves of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper, into a circle ⅛” thick
Using a 4 ½” round cutter, cut four discs out of the rolled dough
Bring together the scraps of dough into a ball, reroll between the parchment paper, and cut the remaining discs
Roll out your second half of the dough and repeat the rolling and cutting process. You should get seven discs out of each dough half, for fourteen discs of dough total.
Spoon 2 heaping teaspoons of your cooled blackberry mixture into the center of each dough round
In a bowl make your egg wash by cracking one egg and adding a splash of water before whisking together with a fork
Using a pastry brush, brush the inside rim of each dough round with the egg wash
Fold one edge of a dough disc over to the other side and press the edges together before crimping or closing with the tongs of a fork. However you choose to close it, make sure the edges are well-sealed together
Brush the tops of each hand pie with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Cut two small, parallel slits into the center of each pie, to allow the filling to breathe while it cooks (without exploding the pie)
Bake at 375F for 25 minutes until the tops are nicely golden
Immediately remove from pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely
Enjoy!