Baking can be intimidating and frustrating, but it can also be fun, silly, messy, and delicious! Whether you have kids or not, if you ever made cookies as a kid with an older family member I’m sure that you have experienced this first-hand.

This week’s Kid’s Kit brings a few simple ingredients into your kitchen for some basic baking fun. Plus, once you learn this recipe you can have fun with it and use different fillings, make it sweet or savory, or even sprinkle sugar or hard cheese on top for some added fun. By using a frozen pie dough, there really isn’t much worry about in regards to messing up the dough, but if you want to get adventurous, Martha Stewart has a great pie dough recipe – it does require a food processor though.

Print Recipe

Local Apple & Pear Hand Pies

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Apple, Pear, Specialty Crop

Author: Sarah Buckman

Equipment

• box grater (or other large holed grater)
• medium sauce pan
• Baking Sheet
• round cookie cutter (approx. 3-4" in diameter)

Ingredients

• 1 package frozen pie dough or homemade pie dough
• 3 local apples
• 2 local Asian pears
• 1 cinnamon stick

Instructions

• Make your homemade pie dough or thaw frozen pie dough.
• Using a grater, grate the local apples and pears and place into a sauce pan with a lid adding one cinnamon stick. Make sure to stop grating before you hit the core and seeds. If you don't have a large-holed grater, you can always dice the apples and pears into small pieces.
• Heat the grated apples and pears in a sauce pan with a lid on medium heat and continually stir fruit until softened approximately 15-30 minutes.
• Remove cinnamon stick from filling and let cool slightly before assembling hand pies.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Using a cookie cutter or ring from a mason jar lid, cut out circles from pie dough. You’ll need two circles for one hand pie. If you have a decorative smaller cookie cutter, you can cut the middle of the top dough just for decorative and venting purposes.
• Using a spoon, scoop a small amount of filling on one of the cut pie doughs and place in the middle. Make sure not to get filling on the edges or it will be hard to close up. Cover the filling and first pie dough with the second layer of dough and cinch/press the edges of the two doughs together with your fingers and then use the tines of a fork to press the edges together again.
• Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes or until hand pies are golden brown. Cool & serve!

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