Mini Hand Pies

These are a little bit time consuming, not gonna lie, but they aren't hard and they are very, very, very good. It's totally worth the extra assembly time - they are delish, easy to transport and eat, perfect picnic food, and making dessert in miniature form always makes them better for some reason ;)

I did use a couple shortcuts, I mean it when I say they are simple to make!

Ingredients:
-prepared pie crust (I use the rolled up kind found in the dairy section)
-berry jam (for these I used store-bought strawberry and homemade blackberry)
-strawberries if desired to make the filling a little thicker
-cornstarch if the jam is too runny
-egg wash (beat one egg with a tiny bit of water in a small bowl)
-coarse sugar

Directions:
-heat oven to 350'
-roll out pie crust until it's a little thinner than if you were making a full pie
-cut out 2.5" circles using a cookie cutter or glass that measures approx that size. note you can make these any size you want but after testing out different sizes (I tried larger 3.5" and also folding a circle in half) but ultimately the little 2.5" won out. make sure you have an even number of circles since you need a top and bottom for each hand pie
-put down a circle on a parchment lined baking sheet, top with a little bit of jam and a small piece of fruit
-brush egg wash around the edges of the circle (top and bottom), lay the top circle on the bottom circle encasing the jam
-using a fork crimp the edges together all the way around
-brush the tops with egg wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar, and poke a couple little holes in the top for steam to escape.
-bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown.

Note: I did a test batch before making a whole pan of these which was good because I used way too much filling and a lot of it oozed out. Experiment with one or two to see how much jam you need to fill the pies without it all leaking out - with the strawberry jam I found it was too runny while baking so I added a bit of cornstarch and some diced strawberries to make it a little thicker. My homemade blackberry jam is super thick so worked perfectly. You want as much filling as you can without it all oozing out! I used two boxes of pie crust and ended up with 44 hand pies not counting my experimental ones. 44 sounds like a lot but they'll go fast!

these are my "testers" -  too much filling!

before baking

after baking - the 2 blackberry on the right held their filling
but the strawberry really oozed out. I adjusted the rest of the
strawberry by adding a little cornstarch and chopped fruit before
filling the pies. 

mmmmmm...mini pie goodness