Blueberry hand pies

Portable and rustic blueberry hand pies made with flaky cream cheese dough are a delicious treat that both kids and adults love! You can bake them all year long, also with frozen fruit. Taste amazing freshly made but are also good the next day. I really love this cream cheese pastry, it’s easy to make but so good. I used it also to make this nectarine galette with raspberries.

Ingredients:

These hand pies are made with:

• Cream cheese pastry which is made with only 5 ingredients: cream cheese, flour, butter, powdered sugar, and salt. It’s crispy, flaky, and has an amazing cream cheese flavor. If you don’t want to use cream cheese dough you can use regular shortcrust pastry dough, like from this recipe for fig tart.
• Blueberry filling – I used frozen wild blueberries (they are smaller than regular blueberries), but you can also use fresh fruit and regular-sized blueberries. They’re mixed with sugar and vanilla pudding powder – which makes the filling more jammy and flavored with vanilla. You can use cornstarch instead and add some vanilla extract. I like to use frozen fruit – it cools down the dough. It’s less sticky and easier to work with thanks to that, also more crispy after being baked. I tried to make these pastries with both fresh and frozen fruit and they were way better with frozen fruit. Frozen fruit also doesn’t release its juices so quickly as fresh fruit. If you’re using frozen blueberries they need to be frozen all the time, this means if you’re making these pastries in batches, put the blueberries in the meantime in the freezer.

Instead of blueberries you can also use any other fruit you like!

Step by step instructions:

1. Stir flour with powdered sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the cold cubed butter and cold cream cheese.

4. Mix at the low speed until the dough comes together. Big clumps of butter in the dough are fine!

5. Flatten the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic foil. Put in the fridge for 2 hours (or longer).

5. After this time, mix the blueberries with sugar and pudding powder.

6. Divide the dough in half, place one half in the fridge and roll out the other half into a thickness about ⅛-inch (3-4 mm). I divided my dough into squares but you can also cut out circles.

7. Place about 2 Tbsp of blueberries on top (or as many as fits).

8. Cover with another piece of though, pinch the edges with your fingers.

9. Press the edges of the dough together with a fork dipped in flour.

10. Transfer the pastries onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, brush them with egg wash and pierce with fork on top.

Bake until golden.

Enjoy!

What to do with leftover dough scraps: you can knead them together and roll out once again, or dip in granulated sugar on both sides and bake as cookies!

Some tips on how to make the perfect blueberry hand pies:

• It’s important that the dough is well cooled. It’s more sticky than traditional shortcrust pastry dough. Make sure to sprinkle the dough a lot with flour and check all the time if it doesn’t stick to the baking paper. If it gets too sticky you can always put it in the fridge for a while.
• Don’t overmix the dough or it will be tough.
• If using fresh berries: make sure that they are cold (the dough will be easier to handle) and mix them with sugar only directly before filling the pastries. Fruit mixed with sugar will start to release to juices – filling the pastries won’t be that easy.
• If using frozen fruit – the dough will be easier to handle and more crispy. If you’re making these pastries in batches make sure to put the blueberries back in the freezer between the batches (while the first batch is baking).

Storage:

• The dough without the filling can be stored for up to 3 days in the fridge.
• Don’t store the dough with the filling (blueberries will release too much juice and the dough will be soggy!).
• I haven’t tried freezing the dough but I think this can be done. Defrost the dough in the fridge.
• These hand pies taste best within a day of baking them, on the second day they are not crispy and flaky anymore, they are more tender, but still very delicious! They taste like cream cheese and blueberry yeast buns. Store them in a tightly closed container.

Blueberry hand pies

Portable and rustic, flaky pastry crust with cream cheese flavor, packed with lots of flavoured with vanilla blueberries.

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Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

resting time 2 hours hours

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 12 hand pies

Calories 307kcal

Author Aleksandra

Ingredients

cream cheese pie crust:

• ▢ 1 ⅔ cup (7.6-oz/215g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup (4.2-oz/120g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 8 oz (230g) cream cheese cold
• ▢ 1.5 sticks (6-oz/170g) butter cold
• ▢ a large pinch of salt

filling:

• ▢ 11 oz (300g) wild blueberries mine were frozen, or regular blueberries
• ▢ 1.5 teaspoons vanilla pudding powder or cornstarch*
• ▢ ¼ cup (2-oz/50g) sugar

egg-wash:

• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 1 tablespoon milk

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Instructions

Pie crust:

• Making the crust by hand: mix the flour with powdered sugar and salt, add the cold cream cheese and diced butter, chop everything with a knife until a crumble forms (or rub the butter chunks and flour mixture with your fingers), then knead quickly with your hands, until dough forms a smooth ball (be careful not to overmix it!)
• If using a stand mixer:

  add the flour, powdered sugar, and salt to the mixing bowl, stir. Add the cold cream cheese and cold diced butter, mix at the lowest speed using paddle-shaped attachment until dough forms a smooth ball (be careful not to overmix it!).
• If using a food processor: Add the flour, powdered sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor, then put the cold cream cheese and cold diced butter on top. Pulse with intervals until dough forms a smooth ball (be careful not to overmix it!).
• In all cases – flatten the dough, wrap in plastic foil and put in the fridge for 2 hours.

Filling:

• After this time, preheat the oven to 190 °C / 375 °F / Gas Mark 5, no fan.

  .
• In a medium bowl, mix the sugar with vanilla pudding powder together, then carefully stir in the blueberries (if using frozen – don't thaw them).

Assemble the pies:

• Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it in half.
• Roll out thinly the first part of the dough on a piece of parchment paper (the second part of the dough returns to the refrigerator) into a large square that’s about ⅛-inch (3-4 mm) thick. It’s important that the dough is well sprinkled with flour, it is a little more sticky than traditional shortcrust pastry. While rolling it out, lift the dough and make sure it doesn‘t stick to the paper.
• Use a sharp knife to cut out any hand pie form you like (I cut 10 x 10 cm / 4 x 4 inch squares).
• Lift a piece of dough, just to make sure that it doesn‘t stick, then put it back, scoop about 2 tablespoons blueberry filling (or as much as will fit), leaving about ⅓-inch (¾ cm) border. Cover with a second piece of dough, seal the edges together with your fingers, then press the edges of the dough together with the tines of a fork (it doesn‘t have to be sealed very well). If the dough sticks to your fingers or fork, dip them in flour. Prick the dough with a fork a couple of times on top of each pie.
• Place the pies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake the pies in batches (the remaining ingredients go to the fridge). Arrange the pies at least an inch / 2.5 cm apart on baking paper.
• Make the egg wash: beat an egg with a tablespoon of milk. Brush the pies with the egg wash. You can sprinkle them with granulated sugar for extra crunch.
• Bake for about 30 minutes, until the pies are golden.
• Repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• What to do with leftover dough scraps: you can knead them together and roll out once again, or dip in granulated sugar on both sides and bake as cookies!
• Ingredient notes:
  • You can also use other fruit.
  • Instead of vanilla pudding powder, you can use cornstarch + vanilla extract or vanilla sugar.
  • You can use another dough recipe, also regular pie crust, instead of this cream cheese dough, but the cream cheese dough is really amazing, flaky, and crispy.
• Storage:
  • The dough without the filling can be stored for up to 3 days in the fridge.
  • Don’t store the dough with the filling (blueberries will release too much juice and the dough will be soggy!).
  • I haven’t tried freezing the dough but I think this can be done. Defrost the dough in the fridge.
  • These hand pies taste best within a day of baking them, on the second day they are not crispy and flaky anymore, they are more tender, but still very delicious! They taste like cream cheese and blueberry yeast buns. Store them in a tightly closed container.
• Important tips:
  • It’s important that the dough is well cooled. It’s more sticky than traditional shortcrust pastry dough. Make sure to sprinkle the dough a lot with flour and check all the time if it doesn’t stick to the baking paper. If it gets too sticky you can always put it in the fridge for a while. 
  • If you are very impatient you can take the dough out of the fridge after an hour (instead of 2 hours), the dough can be than a little harder to work with.
  • Don’t overmix the dough or it will be tough.
  • If using fresh berries: make sure that they are cold (the dough will be easier to handle) and mix them with sugar only directly before filling the pastries. Fruit mixed with sugar will start to release to juices – filling the pastries won’t be that easy.
  • If using frozen fruit – don’t thaw them! – the dough will be easier to handle and more crispy. If you’re making these pastries in batches make sure to put the blueberries back in the freezer between the batches (while the first batch is baking).
• Calories = 1 blueberry pastry (1/12 of the recipe).

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, international

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