Little Kids LOVE these mini pies!
Kids like after school snacks, and these are so easy to make for their little hands. Have them ready with a glass of milk - they're fun to dunk! This is an easy recipe and quick recipe to make out of ready to go ingredients. You only need two ready made pie crusts from your favorite grocery store's refrigerator section, and a jar of Nutella. EVERYbody loves Nutella. The sky is the limit as far as decorations or if you even want to decorate them.
Gram used to make little hand pies, but she called them Date Filled Cookies (Ewww! Nothing against Gram, but I just don't care for dates. Though, I know people loved her Date cookies, including Gramps, Mom and Dad and the neighbors. I do have to admit that her cookie dough in that recipe was superb! She caught me once eating the dough around the date filling and threw away the dated filling. She did not appreciate that because you just did not waste food in her house.
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Anyway, I have updated her Date Filled Cookies to my Nutella Hand Pies, using a chocolate hazelnut filling instead of dates. And, instead of her homemade pie crust recipe I've turned to the easy to use store bought pie crusts. I'll share her Date Filled Cookie recipe at a later date.
This recipe makes about 12-14 hand pies. Each crust yields 6-7 hand pies.
Preheat the oven to 375F degrees.
Prepare the cookie sheets:
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper rated for over 400F degrees.
Ingredients:
2 Pie crusts, refrigerated store bought or homemade
1/2 - 3/4 C Nutella spread
1 Egg
1 T Water
2 T sugar for sprinkling on hand pies
Assemble the little hand pies:
- In a small bowl, make the egg wash by whisking the egg and water together until well mixed. Set aside.
- With the Nutella, scoop small 1" dollops and drop them on a cookie sheet, then freeze for 20 minutes.
- Thaw the pie crusts according to package directions.
- Flour a clean surface and your rolling pin. Roll the two pie crusts a little thinner and cut 3" circles out of each one.
- Reroll the leftover dough and cut more circles.
- Place one Nutella dollop a little off center of each circle.
- With a pastry brush, spread a little of the egg wash on the outside edges of each circle.
- Fold each circle in half and seal together by pressing a fork all the way around the rounded edge of the half circle.
- Poke the fork once or twice on top of each hand pie so any steam can escape during the baking process. This will help keep the hand pie from puffing up too much.
- Spread a little egg wash on top of each hand pie and sprinkle with a little sugar.
- Bake at 325F degrees for 10-14 minutes, until golden brown.
- Cool on a rack.
- Enjoy!
Options:
- For a larger hand pie, use two circles, one on top of the other with the Nutella in between. Spread the egg wash around the entire edge of the bottom circle, place the Nutella dollop in the center and lay the second circle on top. Then, seal them around the edges with a fork. By sealing them properly, the chocolate will not leak out.
- Add some rough chopped almonds to the round dollops of Nutella before freezing them. Or, sprinkle some on top of the Nutella before you fold over the pie crusts.
- Cherries and chocolate go well together, so mix a few dried chopped cherries in the Nutella before you drop the dollops to be frozen,.
- Sprinkle mini chocolate chips on the hand pies while are still warm so they melt on top.
- Drizzle glaze on the hand pies and then shake some chocolate or multi-colored jimmies on top. Switch up the colors to match the season or the holiday - orange and brown or black for Halloween, red-white-blue for summer, green-red for Christmas, etc.
- Enjoy the combination of chocolate and peanut butter in a hand pit. Drop a small dollop of Nutella alongside a small dollop of peanut butter for a double flavor, and roll them together before freezing. Bake according to directions above.
However you garnish or top your Nutella Mini Pies, "Bake your own Memories!"
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