I love these cute little pies that fit right in your hand. They are similar to a recipe I used to make a lot when I first started baking, only these are made with a perfectly flakey pie crust (my favorite go-to crust!) and a fresh mixed berry filling. Celebrate 3/14 (Pi Day!) by baking up a crowd-pleasing recipe.
These pies are fun to make because you can use any fruit filling you like. I love the way they look too – so cute and little. Perfect for a picnic or to take to a friend on Pi Day!
Start by making my favorite crust – a mixture of shortening (organic and non-hydrogenated) and butter makes the perfect pie crust in my humble pie opinion.
While there are several methods for making crusts out there (grating, mixing with a fork, pastry blender…) I prefer the food processor method. It’s easy, it’s quick, and the heat from my hands doesn’t transfer to the dough and mess it all up. This recipe is adapted from Rebecca Miller Ffrench’s book, Sweet Home. I love it – I use it for all my pies now. Her book is fantastic – get it.
The trick is that things need to be COLD. Cold butter, cold shortening, and ice water. Then chill the dough again when it comes together. That keeps all the flaky layers in the dough when you bake it. After an hour you are ready to roll!
Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll out the dough and cut into an even rectangle, then into four squares.
Mix up the berries with a simple addition of cornstarch to thicken and a little sugar and lemon zest for brightness.
Fill each square and brush the edges with some egg wash. Foll over and seal – crimping with a fork.
Cut vent holes in the top and brush with egg wash, then sprinkle with sanding sugar to make them gleam and sparkle.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.
If you have extra filling after doing both disks of dough, like I did, just scrape it into a pie dish or shallow casserole and top with the extra dough scraps. You can brush that with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar too – nothing gets wasted around here!
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 5 tablespoons organic nonhydrogenated shortening (such as Spectrum organic), chilled
- 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼ inch pieces
- 6 - 8 tablespoons ice water
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 Package (6 ounces) Blackberries
- 1 Package (6 ounces) Raspberries
- 1/2 cup Blueberries
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon water
- Coarse Sugar or Sanding Sugar
- Make the pie dough. Make sure to chill the shortening a few hours or the day before you want to use it. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and sugar.
- Sprinkle the butter and shortening pieces all over the top and pulse again until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- With the machine running, through the feed tube add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough starts to come together. In drier climates like Central Oregon, you will need a little more water. Don’t over blend - when the dough is getting clumpy it’s done!
- Remove to a work surface and form into two discs. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. You can make the crust a week ahead or even freeze up to 3 months ahead and thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Mix together the berry filling. In a mixing bowl, add the cornstarch and the sugar together. Add the berries and the lemon zest and gently fold the berries to mix everything together.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and the water well. Set aside until you are ready to assemble the pies.
- When the crust has chilled an hour, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Remove one of the discs and roll on a lightly floured countertop to a rectangle roughly 10 x 14. Trim the edges so you have a straight rectangle, then cut into 4 large squares.
- Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the berry filling onto one half of each square, then brush the edges of the square with the egg wash. Fold over crimp with a fork to seal the edges. Cut three vent holes in the top of each pie, and brush the top with egg wash. Sprinkle generously with the sanding sugar.
- Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Repeat with the other disc of dough to make a total of 8 hand pies.
- I had extra berry filling and saved the pie scraps from trimming. If you have leftovers, spoon the filling into a pie plate or small casserole dish and top with the leftover pie scraps. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, and bake 25-35 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.
- Let cool slightly on a wire rack before serving with ice cream or eating out of hand. Delish!
- You can make this pie dough ahead and freeze it until you are ready to bake it. Put in the fridge overnight to thaw and then roll, cut, assemble and bake as directed.
- This is my FAVORITE pie dough - I use it for all my pies. The mixture of organic shortening and butter is flakey and flavorful.