The apples are in, the light is going early, and the kitchen smells like the orchard bag you brought home on Saturday. This is the weekend for pie, but a whole pie asks for a crowd and a pie plate and a reason. These hand pies ask for none of that. You get the same flaky crust and spiced apples, sized for one hand, with sharp cheddar baked right into the dough.
Makes 8 hand pies. About 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes of chilling.
Why These Work
Cheddar and apple is an old pairing for a reason. The cheese stays in the background, salty and a little sharp, and it makes the apples taste more like themselves. The filling gets cooked before it goes into the dough, which solves the two problems that sink most hand pies. Raw filling steams the crust open, and raw apples shrink as they bake and leave a hollow pocket. Cooked first, the filling stays put and the crust stays crisp.
The other thing that matters is cold. Cold butter, cold water, and a short chill before baking are what make the crust flake instead of toughen. If the dough starts feeling soft or sticky while you work, put it back in the fridge for ten minutes. It will wait for you.
Honeycrisp apples are the easy choice here. The variety was developed at the University of Minnesota and released in 1991, and it holds its shape in the oven instead of cooking down to sauce. Granny Smith works just as well if you like a tarter filling.
Apple Cheddar Hand Pies
Ingredients
Method
- Make the dough. Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the pieces are about the size of peas. Stir in the cheddar. Drizzle in the ice water one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork, until the dough just holds together when you squeeze a handful. It should not feel wet. Flatten into a disk, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cook the filling. Melt the butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cook, stirring often, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the apples are just tender at the edges and the juices run syrupy. Stir the cornstarch into 1 tablespoon of cold water, pour it in, and cook 1 minute more until the filling turns glossy. Scrape into a bowl and let it cool completely. Warm filling melts the crust before it ever reaches the oven.
- Roll and cut. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut eight 5-inch rounds with a bowl or large cutter, gathering and re-rolling the scraps once. If the dough softens, slide it back into the fridge for 10 minutes before you cut.
- Fill and seal. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of filling onto one half of each round, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Fold the dough over and press the edges firmly with your fingers, then crimp with the tines of a fork. Cut two small vents in the top of each pie so steam has somewhere to go. Do not overfill them. A pie that is too full is a pie that leaks.
- Chill, wash, and sugar. Set the filled pies on the baking sheet and chill for 10 minutes. Brush the tops with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the coarse sugar.
- Bake. Bake for 22 to 26 minutes, until the crusts are deep golden and the filling bubbles gently at the vents. Cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before you move them. The filling comes out of the oven hot enough to burn, and it needs that time to set.
Make Them Yours, and Make Them Ahead
Any firm apple works. Haralson, another Minnesota-bred variety, holds its shape well, and a mix of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith gives you sweet and tart in the same bite. Skip soft eating apples like Red Delicious, which cook down to mush inside the crust.
If you would rather not put cheese in the dough, use a plain crust and fold 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar into the cooled filling instead. You still get the pairing, just in a different place.
These freeze well unbaked. Freeze the filled pies on the sheet until firm, then bag them for up to 3 months. Bake straight from frozen at 400 degrees F, adding 5 to 8 minutes. Baked pies keep covered at room temperature for 2 days, and a few minutes in a 325-degree oven brings the crust back.
Serve them warm, ideally with a mug of mulled apple cider alongside. That is the whole project. A little dough, a pan of apples, and an afternoon that ends with something warm in your hands.
