Air Fry Fruit Hand Pies

writ­ten 08/07/2023, updat­ed 08/07/2023

What

Fruit-filled hand pies, air fried, and with veg­an ingre­di­ents. Orig­i­nal recipe from Food Net­work Mag­a­zine. Air fry­ing is faster than bak­ing: 20 min­utes vs 50 min­utes

Ingredients

Dough

2 cups All-Pur­pose Flour (+ dust­ing)
2 Tbsp gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar
¼ tsp bak­ing pow­der
1 stick (8 Tbsp) cold unsalt­ed but­ter (small pieces)
2 Tbsp cold veg­etable short­en­ing
4–6 Tbsp Ice Water

Filling

*your choice of fruit

1 cup Blue­ber­ries
1 cup Rasp­ber­ries
½ cup Straw­ber­ries (chopped)
¼ cup Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar
¼ tsp ground car­damom
Kosher Salt (pinch)
1 Tbsp Water (+ 2–3 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp Corn­starch
1 Tbsp Fresh Lime Juice

Option­al: Glaze (or equiv­a­lent), Coarse Sugar/Confectioner Sug­ar, Egg Wash/Olive Oil/Melted Veg­an But­ter, Ice Cream

Sup­plies: Parch­ment paper, rolling pin, plas­tic wrap, mix­ing bowl, spat­u­la, brush, drip pan/foil, air fry­er

Time

Prep 40 min­utes + Set 2 hours + Air Fry ~20 min­utes = Total 3 hours

Servings:

8 Serv­ings

Directions

Prep

Dough
  • Whisk flour (2 cups), sug­ar (2 Tbsp), salt (option­al ½ tsp), and bak­ing pow­der (¼ tsp)
  • Add half of but­ter (4 Tbsp) and all of short­en­ing (2 Tbsp)
  • Rub until short­en­ing not detectable
  • Add rest of but­ter (4 Tbsp) and work until pea-sized but­ter pieces remain
  • Mix in ice water (4 Tbsp) with fork or hands
  • Grad­u­al­ly add more of ice water (1 Tbsp at a time) only until dough sticks when squeezed (it’s okay if it’s crumbly)
  • Turn onto plas­tic wrap
  • Shape into a disk
  • Refrig­er­ate until firm (~2 hours)
Filling
  • Com­bine in saucepan: fruit (2½ ‑3 cups, chopped), sug­ar (¼ cup), ground car­damom* (¼ tsp), Kosher salt (pinch) and water (1 Tbsp)
  • Cook medi­um heat, stir­ring, until berries release juice and sim­mers
  • Con­tin­ue cook­ing and stir­ring, until thick­ened (~10 min)
  • Whisk corn­starch and lime juice
  • Stir into saucepan
  • Cook until glossy (~30 sec)
  • Remove from heat and let cool, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly

*if no car­damom avail­able, can sub­sti­tute. Best is 1:1 cin­na­mon and nut­meg. Oth­er choic­es: gin­ger, cloves

Cooking

Crust
  • Divide dough into 8 pieces
  • Roll each into a ball
  • Flat­ten into ~6in rounds,
  • Dust with flour as need­ed
  • Spoon fill­ing in, leav­ing an edge for crimp­ing (about 2 dessert spoons each)
  • Fold in half, then fold in edges, and crimp
  • Refrig­er­ate each while prepar­ing the rest
Air Fry
  • Pre­heat air-fry­er to 350F
  • Brush on egg wash/olive oil/melted but­ter to each pie
  • Cut slits in each for vent­ing
  • Use air fry­er bas­ket and cook 15–20 min­utes until gold­en brown
  • Remove
  • Let cool
  • Option­al Glaze: Whisk confectioner’s sug­ar with 2–3 Tsp water until smooth, driz­zle over pies OR use Apple Jel­ly, etc
  • Option­al: Dust with coarse sug­ar
  • Option­al: Serve with Ice Cream

ENJOY

Pictures

Notes

  • I used peach­es and blue­ber­ries, but would rec­om­mend either less blue­ber­ries, or just peach­es by them­selves. Blue­ber­ries too pow­er­ful
  • If I were to make again, I would do 2 half-batch­es of fill­ing: one peach and one apple. Or what­ev­er fla­vors, just 2 of them
  • If you put too much fill­ing, then they will burst. LOL
  • Your choice on rolled thick­ness of dough
  • You don’t have to use short­en­ing, but it will make dough more dense
  • I hap­pened to use too much water and over­worked the dough mak­ing it soft and hard­er to fold
  • I also cheat­ed and placed in freez­er for 30 min­utes before plac­ing in fridge
  • Then messed up by tak­ing the dough out too ear­ly which meant it soft­ened too much
  • The orig­i­nal recipe calls for salt in the dough por­tion… I decid­ed that I don’t like it espe­cial­ly since bak­ing pow­der is also salty. Will sub­sti­tute either sug­ar or cut the salt alto­geth­er
  • Be care­ful not to over flour when apply­ing fill­ing