It’s fresh fruit season! Strawberries and blueberries, peaches, cherries, oh my! I love fresh fruit. I especially love fresh fruit pies.
If you’re reading this post, you probably also love pie. Now imagine you have a mini personal pie. You’re holding in your hands a little pocket of bliss, bursting with the vibrant and sweet essence of cherries. The flaky, golden-brown crust cradles a luscious filling of juicy cherries, perfectly balanced between tartness and natural sweetness.
As you take a bite, your taste buds are greeted with a delightful medley of flavors—the tang of the cherries and the buttery goodness of the crust. Each bite is a harmonious combination of textures, with the tender fruit filling melding with the crispness of the crust. The aroma of warm cherries wafts all around you.
Whether enjoyed as a grab-and-go treat or savored slowly with a cup of tea (or glass of wine), a cherry hand pie is a handheld delight that brings together the nostalgic charm of a classic pie in a convenient and portable form. So take a bite, and let the irresistible flavors of cherry dance on your palate, bringing you a moment of pure joy.
It sounds delicious right?! They really are quite wonderful.
They’re naturally dairy-free and vegan. Want gluten-free too? Swap in Bob Red Mill’s gluten-free flour in place of the flour. SO tasty.
Before we get started, a quick note about timing: the filling, once made, needs to cool for at least an hour before finishing making the hand pies. I recommend making the dough + filling in the morning, and then finishing them later that day. Or, you can make the dough and filling a day ahead, and then finish the hand pies the next day. Whichever is better for your schedule.
Let’s get baking!
Show off your baking! Share photos on Instagram (or your favorite social media platform) and tag @FetchingGoodies and hashtag #FetchingGoodies. I love to see + share your bakes.
Vegan Cherry Hand Pies Recipe
Ingredients
The Crust Dough
- 180 g vegan butter, cold 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks)
- 240 g pastry flour (or all purpose flour) 2 cups
- 30 g arrowroot powder 3 Tablespoons
- 15 g maple syrup 1 Tablespoon
- 45-90 g water 3-6 Tablespoons
The Filling Part
- 1 pint fresh cherries, pitted + quartered or frozen. 2 cups
- 50 g granulated sugar 1/4 cup
- 15 g fresh lemon juice 1 Tablespoon
- 15 g arrowroot powder 1 Tablespoon
- 15 g water 1 Tablespoon
Finishing Touch
- 15 g maple syrup 1 Tablespoon
- 15 g non-dairy milk (almond, oat, soy, etc) 1 Tablespoon
Instructions
The Crust Dough
- Using a grater, grate the butter onto a plate. Scoop the grated butter into a container and put it in the freezer. You want your butter as cold as possible to ensure it doesn't melt while making the dough. (Alternatively, you can cut it into cubes with a knife.)
- Place the pastry flour and arrowroot powder (3 Tablespoons) into a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine them together.
- Add in the cold butter and pulse several more times, until it's roughly incorporated, evenly, into small crumbs.
- Add in the maple syrup and 2 Tablespoons of water to the food processor and keep pulsing to combine it into a ball. If it's still dry, add in a Tablespoon more of water at a time until the dough comes together into a ball. It should be soft to the touch. If it's dry, add another Tablespoon of water. If it gets too sticky (too much water) add in some more flour.
- Take the dough ball out of the food processor. Flatten it slightly into a disk shape. Wrap it in plastic wrap (or place it in a plastic ziploc bag. Sandwich size works well). Place it in the fridge.
The Filling
- Add the cherries, sugar, and lemon juice to a saucepan and heat over medium heat on the stove, stirring constantly. Cook until the cherries break down a bit and are bubbly, about 10 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low. Combine the arrowroot powder (1 Tablespoon) and water (1 Tablespoon) together in a small bowl and add them to the cherries and mix well. The mixture should become thick and jammy within a couple of minutes. Once it does, remove it from the stove.
- Scoop the cherry mixture into a bowl (I use a glass pyrex) and place it in the refrigerator to cool. Allow it to cool for at least an hour.
- Break! You can either do the above steps a day in advance, or take a little break while the filling cools.
- After an hour (or more, or the next day), remove your dough from the fridge. If you've waited more than an hour, allow it to sit on the counter for 20 minutes to come back up to temperature a bit.
- Lightly flour a large piece of parchment paper or a pastry mat with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pie dough out, adding more flour onto the mat / dough / rolling pin as needed to prevent it from sticking. Roll the dough to about an 1/8 inch thick.
- Use a 3 inch cookie cutter or the top of a drinking glass to cut out 16 circles total. You'll need to gather up the scraps and re-roll 2-3 times. (Don't worry if you don't get 16 circles with the first roll. You won't!)
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 8 of the round circles onto the sheet.
- Take the cherry filling and place a heaping Tablespoon of filling onto each of those 8 rounds. You want to leave an edge around each circle, so try to keep the filling in the center.
- This is when I typically pre-heat my oven. Heat your oven to 400℉.
- Back to the pies. Fill a small dish with water. Dip your clean finger into the water and run it around the edges of one of the cherry rounds. Dip your finger in water again and run it around the edges of one of the blank dough rounds. Take the blank dough round and place it – waterside down – on top of the cherry filled round, so that it's water-to-water. The water creates the stickiness, the glue, to seal the edges of your hand pies together and prevent the jam from oozing out too much while baking. Run your finger lightly around the edges to blend the seam of the top and bottom rounds together. Repeat this for all of the hand pies.
- Take a fork. Use the tines of the fork to lightly press around the edges of each hand pie. This helps cinch them together, and looks pretty.
- Last step! Stir together 1 tablespoon or maple syrup and 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk. Use a pastry brush (or your fingers) to spread the liquid lightly all over the tops of the hand pies. This will help create that golden brown color in the oven.
- Once your oven is preheated, pop the hand pies in. Bake them for 22-25 minutes until they look golden brown. You'll be able to smell their sweet essence as they bake. Mmmmmm
- Remove them from the oven and place the baking sheet on a cooling rack or hot pad for at least 10-15 minutes. Eat them immediately, nice and warm, or allow them to cool completely.
- Once they're cooled, store them in an airtight container on the counter for 3-5 days. If you want to store them for a later date, place them gently into a freezer ziploc bag, or a freezer-proof container, and pop them in the freezer for up to 3 months. To defrost, place them on the counter for 1 hour.
- Optional but highly recommend: Serve warm with your favorite vegan ice cream. My go-to for these is Oatly vanilla.
- Eat + enjoy!
Notes
Did you make this recipe? Share photos on Instagram (or your favorite social media platform) and tag @FetchingGoodies and hashtag #FetchingGoodies to show it off. I’ll share it on the Fetching Goodies Instagram stories, too. 🙂