Description
Enjoy these easy and delicious spiced apple and blackberry hand pies filled with tender cooking apples, juicy blackberries, and a warm cinnamon-honey filling encased in buttery shortcrust pastry. Perfect for a comforting dessert, served warm with cream or custard.
Ingredients
Scale
Fruit Filling
- 2 medium cooking apples peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
- 50 g golden caster sugar
- 150 g blackberries fresh or frozen
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pastry
- 2 sheets (320 g each) shortcrust pastry
For Assembly
- 1 small egg beaten
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
Instructions
- Cook Apples: Place the apples in a small saucepan with 50 g golden caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Cover with a lid and cook for about 8 minutes until the apples are soft. Transfer to a shallow dish and spread out to cool slightly.
- Prepare Filling: In a small bowl, mix cornflour, honey, and ground cinnamon into a smooth paste. Add the blackberries to the cooled apples and drizzle with the cinnamon-honey paste. Gently mix to combine without breaking the berries.
- Cut Pastry Circles: Unroll the shortcrust pastry sheets and using a 10 cm pastry cutter (or a ramekin/glass of similar diameter), cut out 12 circles.
- Assemble Pies: Spoon about 1 tablespoon of fruit filling onto half of the pastry circles, leaving a 1 cm border. Brush the edges with beaten egg and cover with the remaining pastry circles. Pinch edges with fingers to create an apple shape dent at top and bottom, then firmly seal edges using fork prongs. Brush each pie with egg wash.
- Add Decorations and Steam Holes: Use any leftover pastry to cut out small leaves and stalks. Attach these decorations on top of each pie with egg wash. Poke a small steam hole in the top of each pie with a skewer.
- Chill Pies: Place the pies on a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight. The pies can also be frozen at this stage for up to 3 months.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (180 degrees fan). Bake the pies for 25 minutes or until golden brown and the filling is bubbling through the steam holes. If baking from frozen, add an extra 10 minutes to the baking time.
- Serve: Remove from oven, sprinkle with caster sugar, and serve warm with cream or custard.
Notes
- If you don’t have a 10 cm round pastry cutter, use an upside down ramekin or a glass of a similar diameter.
- For making ahead, prepare the pies up to step 5, then store in the fridge for up to 24 hours or freeze for up to 3 months before baking.
- Using digital scales ensures accuracy, especially when measuring pastry and filling ingredients.
- Ensure steam holes are pierced to prevent pies from bursting during baking.
- Use fresh or thawed blackberries for best texture results.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 pie
- Calories: 310 kcal
- Sugar: 18 g
- Sodium: 80 mg
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 7 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 42 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 35 mg
