Strawberries and cream hand pies

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I’ve been wanting to create a hand pie recipe for a while and since we had a bunch of extra strawberries lying around (I got a little overzealous at the grocery store), I thought it would be the perfect time to give it a try. For these strawberries and cream hand pies, I used store-bought crust to save time. You can also easily substitute another kind of fruit – I’m planning to try a peaches and cream version this summer!

Ingredients for strawberries and cream hand pies

1 box (15 oz) refrigerated pie crust
2 cups fresh strawberries, finely diced
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cover a large baking pan with parchment paper. Take out pie crust packages out of the box to rest on counter.

2. Combine strawberries, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and bubbling. Remove from heat and cool.

3. In a small bowl, beat together cream cheese, vanilla extract and powdered sugar until fully combined.

4. Roll out each pie crust on a floured surface. Dough should be about 1/8 in. thick. Using a 3 in. biscuit cutter, cut circles out of the crust. Take unused pie dough, roll it out and cut additional circles. Repeat until there’s not enough dough left.

5. Place half the dough circles on the prepared baking sheet. Place 2-3 tsp of cream cheese filling* and 2-3 tsp of the strawberry mixture in the center of each circle.

6. Cut a small X in the center of each remaining dough circle and use them to top each prepared pie. Gently squeeze together the edges all around the pie and then use a fork to seal the edges.

7. Whisk together egg and 1 tsp water in a small bowl. Brush the egg wash mixture over the top of each pie.

8. Bake pies for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly before serving.

* We have one dairy-free kid in our house, so I did half strawberry only and half strawberries and cream pies. If you leave out the cream cheese, just double up on the strawberry filling.