If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you might be familiar with this fan-favorite recipe for healthy whole wheat cherry hand pies.  Made with an unsweetened, buttery crust, every bite is filled with delicious honey-sweetened black cherries.  They are simple and fun to make and best of all you get a cute mini pie all to yourself!

Over the years, my hubby Bob has decided at least for his birthdays he is a ‘pie guy’ meaning please skip the cake and go straight for the pie.  I couldn’t agree more.  I choose flaky, buttery crusts and fruit filling every time! 

Please note that these sweet pies are perfectly imperfect.  Each time we make them they look a little different.  Sometimes we flute the edges with a fork, sometimes we pinch the edges with our fingers.  Every time some of the juicy centers spill out during baking.  It’s part of the fun and makes it that much easier to pick them up with our hands and gobble them up leaving crumbs and juice stained fingers.

Individually sized pies are fun and easy to eat.  My recipe makes a small batch;  4 heart-shaped hand pies using large cookie cutters to make cute individual pie shapes.

Reasons to love these cherry hand pies –

• minimal sugars added (one tablespoon honey and one tablespoon decorating/coarse sugar)
• easy to control individual portions
• buttery deliciousness
• healthier crust using whole wheat pastry flour

Here I remembered to cut steam release slits on the top crusts – it didn’t make much difference in the end result as the cherry juice still seeped out, perfectly imperfect pies!

Wilton White Sparkling Sugar

Cherry hand pies land in the ‘healthy-ish’ category.  There is no added sugar aside from the Wilton White Sugar Sprinkles I use on the top of the crusts and a tablespoon of honey we stir in with the cherries, vanilla, and lemon juice.

For the dough, we use whole wheat pastry flour with no sugar added.  In my personal opinion, a great-tasting crust is impossible to make without butter.

Photo from Erin’s food blog, Well Plated – the post where this picture is from is “Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies“.

Making the crust for homemade hand pies

1. Using a stand mixer saves kneading time.  After so many years making pie dough by hand I can appreciate that. Use the dough hook for pie crust dough if using a stand mixer
2. Start it out low and slow, scraping down the edges.  Stop midway and squeeze a little with my hands.  Then speed up the mixer for the last minute or two until a ball starts to form.
3. At this point simply wrap the crust pie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate about half an hour or so.
4. Once you’ve floured your work surface and rolled out the dough, it’s fun to use large cookie cutters to make sweet shaped hand pie crusts.  Remember that you will need one for the bottom and one for the top.  Make 8 shapes in total.
5. If you don’t have cookie cutters flour the edges of a large bowl for round mini pies.

Watch this video for a demonstration of how to both make the hand pie crusts, fill the little pies with cherries, seal the tops on, brush with egg mixture, and sprinkle with sugar:

Our team has just launched Oven Hug’s Youtube channel.  My 9-year-old twin nieces helped with the very first Oven Hug channel video.  To see that adorable video, Healthy Breakfast Omelet Burrito, and more fun demos, we’d love it if you’d join the channel by subscribing here:  Oven Hug Youtube Channel.  We have a very modest following at this point and would love your support.

Can you use fresh cherries or only frozen? 

Feel free to use fresh, pitted berries for this recipe.  One thing to note about using de-pitted frozen cherries is that they will have quite a bit of cherry juice once they have been defrosted.

Our family loves berry and cherry pies but please don’t feel restricted by using cherries as your hand pie filling.  You can use any fruit filling for hand pies – apples, strawberries, blueberries…What’s your favorite type of pie?

Recipe tips –

• Use your hands to press and stretch the top piece of pie crust so that it will stretch over and be large enough to cover the filling
• Whisk up an egg as the sealant for the double-sided hand pie.
• Use the tines of a fork to imprint and flute the edges of the pies.
• Sugar sprinkles on top are tasty and dress up the perfectly imperfect pies
• If you’re used to sweeter desserts add a couple of pinches of sugar to the crust dough
• This recipe is for a very small batch of hand pies.  My rationale is if we had twice as many hand pies we’d be eating twice as much pie!  If you are feeding a crowd, double up the recipe

Family reviews of WW Cherry Hand Pies –

Bob:  “wow!  hand pies just like McDonald’s!”  

Ava:  “mmm, healthy and delicious, it’s hard to eat just one”

Loving low-sugar fun baking ideas and just found your cookie cutters?  Be sure to check out our post for  Low Sugar Almond Flour Shapes Cookies!  Can’t find your cookies but still want to bake?  No problem try our Gluten-Free Chocolate Nut Butter Protein Cookies

We’ve got you covered 🙂

Yield: 4

Whole Wheat Cherry Hand Pies

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If you've been reading my blog for a while you might be familiar with this fan-favorite recipe for healthy whole wheat cherry hand pies.  Made with an unsweetened, buttery crust, every bite is filled with delicious honey-sweetened black cherries.  They are simple and fun to make and best of all you get a cute mini pie all to yourself!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes

Additional Time 30 minutes

Total Time 54 minutes

Ingredients

CRUST:

• 1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick) cut into slices
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tablespoon of ice water
• 1 tablespoon of decorative sugar (clear sugar sprinkles)

FILLING:

• 3/4 cup dark whole pitted sweet cherries, defrosted from frozen (about 5 cherries per hand pie or 20 total pitted whole cherries)
• the juice of 1/4 of a fresh lemon (1 tablespoon lemon juice)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 egg

Instructions

CRUST:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Process butter and flour together in a standing mixer using the hook attachment and run on low setting for about a couple of minutes
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed
4. Add water and increase the speed of mixing until the dough balls up
5. Once a ball has formed, remove from bowl, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least a half an hour
6. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
7. Tape down a large sheet of parchment paper on a working surface and sprinkle with flour
8. Coat a rolling pin with flour
9. Unwrap the chilled dough, flatten and roll out on the parchment-lined work surface
10. Use fun, large cookie cutters to form shapes from the rolled out dough (I used heart-shaped cookie cutters)
11. Use your hands to gently pinch and stretch out the top crusts to be able to stretch over the hand pie filling

FILLING:

1. Defrost 1 cup of dark, whole pitted sweet cherries
2. Squeeze the juice of 1/4 fresh lemon juice (about 1 tablespoon) over the cherries and stir
3. Soften honey in the microwave (if in a glass jar)
4. Spoon out 1 tablespoon of honey and drizzle it over the cherries
5. Add vanilla extract
6. Give the filling a gentle stirring
7. Whisk an egg in a small bowl
8. Use a brush to apply egg to the outer edges of the bottom pie crust pieces/heart shapes
9. Place about 5 cherries on the bottom pie layer for each hand pie
10. Gently lay the top crust layer/heart shape over the fruit filling and press together the sides
11. Flute the edges with the tines of a fork or pinch together with your fingers
12. Make 2 small slits on the tops of the pie crusts to release steam when cooking
13. Brush a little egg mixture on the tops of the pies
14. Sprinkle the tops of the hand pies liberally with sprinkles sugar
15. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are beginning to brown

Notes

This recipe makes 4 individual hand pies when using large cookie cutter shapes for each side of the pie - two pie 'cookies' per hand pie...one for the bottom and one the top.

There will be cherry juice once the frozen cherries have defrosted. To thicken the filling use a pinch or two of cornstarch (preferable) or flour and gently stir until it dissolves.

• Use your hands to press and stretch the top piece of pie crust so that it will stretch over and be large enough to cover the filling
• Whisk up an egg as the sealant for the double-sided hand pie.
• Use the tines of a fork to imprint and flute the edges of the pies or your fingers to pinch the edges together
• Sugar sprinkles on top are tasty and dress up the perfectly imperfect pies
• If you're used to sweeter desserts add a couple of pinches of sugar to the crust dough
• This recipe is for a very small batch of hand pies.  My rationale is if we had twice as many hand pies we'd be eating twice as much pie!  If you are feeding a crowd, double up the recipe

*Note: This recipe was inspired by Erin, the food blogger who runs Well Plated and her post, "Heart-Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies".

Recommended Products

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• 
  Wilton White Sparkling Sugar, 8 oz.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 438Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 128mgCarbohydrates: 84gFiber: 8gSugar: 20gProtein: 14g