Saturday, July 20, 2013

Cherry Hand Pies : ABC July 2013

I am so late with this month's bake at Avid Bakers Challenge (ABC)! Two days more before the linky closes. Well, I have a good reason for being late, my 18 year old oven finally gave up and I am without an oven for a couple of weeks. Yeah, it was torturing, out of baking action for a couple of weeks!! Now that I finally have my new oven, I am back with a baking vengeance! LOL! Looking at everyone's linky at ABC, I am practically drooling over their delicious pies. And with great reviews from everyone too, so I am definitely not going to miss this one, even if I should miss the deadline, I would still make this, sooner or later!

This month's bake, Blueberry Hand Pies is from King Arthur Flour website, here. I have some frozen blueberries in my freezer, but have used a can of cherry pie filling which I bought quite sometime ago. 


Just as the other ABC bakers' review on these pies, these are excellent! The pastry crust is so buttery, flaky, tender, crispy and delicious!


I used the food processor to mix the dough. The only changes I made was to substitute the sour cream with homemade yoghurt. When I mixed the butter into the flour, the mixture was crumbly with pea-sized crumbs just as the recipe says. It was when I mixed in the yoghurt, the mixture starts to turn very soft and sticky!! The dough was kinda soft and sticky, like the texture of a very thick batter when making cookies! I was really worried that it would turn out a total failure. Especially so when I've read from my fellow bakers at ABC, their dough was kinda dry! Mine was totally the opposite! Well, let's just hope for the best. I actually left the dough in the refrigerator overnight, did not plan to, but was not feeling well that day, and decided to bake the pies the next day.

The next afternoon, took the dough out and left it at room temperature for about 15 minutes to soften it slightly. I placed a big sheet of plastic over the dough to roll it out as it was sticking to the rolling pin as the dough was very soft. But with some light dusting of flour over the dough really helps. When the dough was cut to size, it was so soft and fragile that I was afraid that when I filled it up with the filling, I would have difficulty in transferring it to the baking pan. So I placed one piece of dough onto the baking pan and did the assembling of the pie directly on the pan. I made the rest of the pie this way and got to handle the dough very gently! However, I did not sprinkle any sanding sugar on the pies before baking, as I prefer them this way.

Brush the top with egg wash,  and off into the oven they went for 20-22 minutes, at 200C.


They bake up beautifully golden and looks so good! When I took the first bite, then the second, then the third, I was like thinking, all that extra "handle with care" seems to worth it! This is so delicious! The crust is so tender, buttery, flaky and crispy! A superb choice, Hanaa! 


For the full recipe, you may get it from KAF's website, here.



ABC source in 2013     Avid Baker's Challenge


To view the other members bake, please stop by Avid Baker's Challenge (ABC). We are currently baking from King Arthur Flour website, if you are interested to join in, please contact Hanaa.

21 comments:

  1. Beautifully done! I'm going to try these with peaches!

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  2. I'm glad you have an oven again, Joyce! These hand pies look fantastic. I really think that any filling would work for these little pies. I have 3 or 4 leftovers in the freezer which I'm saving for a special occasion :o)

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  3. hi,I'm happy to hear that you have an oven too, love your hand pies and the pretty cut out flowers and I all so did mine in a food processor too and thank you for stopping by..

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  4. Hi Joyce , got to try these , they are perfect for my kids , each has their own pie :) maybe I'll take a bite out of each one .

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  5. Yummy, Yummy ! Makes me hungry

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  6. crisp brown hand pies with a gooey cherry filling, whats not to love ? :-)

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  7. Joyce, your pies turned out beautifully! Gosh, I should get down to making pies :)

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  8. Sooo pretty. My family loves cherry pie filling.....those pies wouldn't have lasted long in my house!
    I too found the dough to be quite soft, even after refrigeration.

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  9. Good to hear that you have got a new oven. This pie looks delicious!

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  10. So, is this your first bake in your new sleek oven? aiaaa,..y didn't call us to come over and have an oven-warming party..:)

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  11. Your pies turned out beautiful!
    Interesting what a difference the change from sour cream to homemade yogurt made. The sour cream obviously contains less water, and has more fat.
    I can imagine that it was a bit nerve-racking to handle such a soft, sticky dough, especially the transfer.
    I made olive breads this morning, also a very soft dough, and managed the first time to get them from the countertop to the baking sheet without twisting them to some extent: http://hanseata.blogspot.com/2010/05/andersons-hate-olives-moegen-die.html
    Take care!

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  12. ivy sew http://simplybeautifulhealthyliving.blogspot.comSunday, July 21, 2013

    Joyce, very tempting leh.... droolinggg. :)

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  13. Your pies had my mouth watering too! What brand is your new oven?

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  14. Just mouthwatering...looks delicious!

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  15. good morning joyce, these pies are beautiful and even though you said the dough was sort of diff to manage, you did well! No out of shape too despite the softness of the dough!

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  16. Your pies looks so flaky and I can imagine how careful you have to be when handling soft dough. But soft dough always produces great results! These look scrumptious!

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  17. Hi Joyce, long time no see :p This is the 3rd cherry recipe I've seen today! The hand pies look really cute and delicious!

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  18. OMG! Hanaa will kill me, I missed out so many bakes in ABC!
    This looks really great!

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  19. Joyce , I can relate re no oven for weeks :D Soft and sticky dough aside , your hand pies turned out great ! The blueberry filling looks good on its own !

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