Strawberry & Chocolate Hand Pies

I made these "hand pies" this morning as soon as I saw the recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod, figuring I could freeze them until Valentine's Day. I halved the recipe and now I really wish I hadn't - they are amazing! So cute and delicious.

I make empanadas sometimes, so I made these more like empanadas - actually they look exactly like my empanadas. The original recipe calls for dark chocolate, which I didn't have, so I used chopped up semi-sweet and white chocolate chips. I'm sure they're great with dark chocolate, but the one I've tried so far was white chocolate and it was pretty amazing! I could also see these being great with a little bit of Nutella instead.

I think the Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies (also originally from Two Peas & Their Pod) would make a great Valentine's Day treat as well!

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Strawberry Dark Chocolate Hand Pies

From Two Peas & Their Pod

MAKING THE PIE DOUGH

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup cold water, plus 2 tablespoons

Put the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor or mixer. While gradually adding a teaspoon of cold water at a time, combine until the dough becomes a little clumpy. Once clumps have formed, turn the dough out onto the counter and form two balls. 

MAKING THE HAND PIES 

2 cups chopped strawberries 
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (or more depending on sweetness of berries)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup chopped dark chocolate
2 tablespoons heavy cream or half & half

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on pies (optional)

The finer chopped the strawberries are, the easier it will be to fit them into the pies. Combine the strawberries, sugar (I used brown sugar) and cornstarch in a bowl. 

Roll out the dough to about a 1/8" thickness. I always roll out pie dough between two sheets of wax paper. (The following is my way of doing this, see the original recipe to see the more tradition way.) Use a wine glass to make discs, which you can then roll out a little more to make an oval, again using wax paper. 

Use your finger to put cream around half of the edge of the disk, a semi-circle around. Put a little chocolate on then a little strawberry - don't overload it. Then fold over half of the disk and press closed. Use a fork to seal and "crimp" the edge. Refrigerate the disks for another half hour.

Preheat the oven to 400. After a half hour, take out the disks and brush with the egg wash (I used my fingers, hate getting that brush dirty). Top with some sugar if you want. Stab them to make a small slit. Line them up on a parchment paper covered baking sheet and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 

Enjoy your amazing hand pies! Maybe dust them with some cocoa  or powdered sugar if you want them to look more desserty? Serve with ice cream?? Or freeze them for later. 

Sleepy dog gets real bored when I bake. He doesn't understand chocolate.

UPDATE: They do freeze very well, as most pie-type things do. We've been heating them up in the microwave, 20 seconds on each side, and the crust has stayed perfect and flaky.