Cranberry Hand Pies: A Festive Necessity

Forage your cranberries or buy them at the market—this is your nudge to bake buttery cranberry hand pies before the year ends. While cranberry sauce is a reflex at Thanksgiving, its inclusion in that meal of meals is often the only time that cranberries, native to North America, appear on most American menus. It’s a too-fleeting moment of celebration for a cold-weather fruit that deserves more love. ranberries’ festive redness and complex flavor are cheering in the months when the nights are longest. Let’s eat more of them; they’re delicious, nutritious, and they belong to a fleeting season. The cranberry hand pies, whose recipe you will find below need only be tasted once to persuade you. I bake them for my late fall and mid-winter plant walks that are followed by a picnic. Flaky, buttery, and tartly-sweet,  they disappear very, very fast.

Photography by Marie Viljoen.

In North America, American cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) are cultivated on both coasts (and in the middle), from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon in the west, in Wisconsin, and in Massachusetts and New Jersey in the east. The low, sprawling shrublets are native to acidic bogs and can be hand-picked in late fall.

Their tart flavor and tannic backbone make cranberries remarkably versatile. Why stop at sauce? In a previous piece we extolled their virtues via a flurry of recipes for holiday-ready cranberry drinks and cocktails. In that story you’ll find syrups and infusions, a ferment, and addictively chewy candied cranberries.

But today we’re talking pies. Little ones.

Hand pies are perhaps the most soothing pastry of all. Having a pie all to yourself frees you from the tyranny of having to share: Every single bite is yours. Also, they’re easy to serve at parties, and they are forgivongly portable. This pie crust is exceptionally buttery, giving way in flakes as you sink your teeth into its shell and the filling of cranberries with just enough sugar to sweeten them is dangerously more-ish. It’s also adaptable: I have seasoned the filling with blood orange zest, juniper, ground spicebush, fir (your fresh-cut holiday tree has aromatic, edible needles), and even pine cone jam. You can also add pieces of cooked apple, pear, or quince.

Cranberry Hand Pies

Makes 14 x 3 ¾-inch round pies (or 16 x 4-inch, half-moon pies)

Butter and half-and-half make the pastry meltingly tender—embrace them. Chilling the pastry is essential for a crisp texture, so do not skip this step. For the filling’s seasonal flavorings, pair the orange zest with juniper or fir. Spicebush works beautifully instead of the zest.

Pastry

• 10 oz (2½  sticks) unsalted butter, cold
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 cups/8.8 oz all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the rolling surface
• 6 Tablespoons half-and-half

Filling

• 12 oz fresh cranberries
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon packed, microplaned orange zest or 2 teaspoons ground spicebush
• 1½ teaspoons cornstarch
• 8 juniper berries, ground finely (optional)
• 1 teaspoon ground fir needles (optional)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tablespoons sugar for dusting

For the pastry: Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Using the coarse side of a box grater, grate the cold butter into the flour (no grater? Cut it into small cubes). Work the butter and flour between your fingertips until the mixture resembles evenly coarse crumbs (with a few larger pieces allowed). Yes, you can also toss it all into a food processor and spin.

Pour in the half-and-half and work with a wooden spoon a few times. Bring the pastry together with your hands, taking care to use as few motions as possible (the more you work it the less tender will become when baking). Now divide the pastry into two equal pieces. Wrap and chill the pastry until solid—at least 2 hours, and as long as 24 (or freeze for later use). You can do this ahead.

For the filling: Place the cranberries with the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a pot over medium-high heat. Stir, and cover. You’ll hear some popping noises as some of the cranberries split in the heat. Gradually their juices will be drawn out. When their liquid is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. Cook until the fruit is soft and saucy, about 8 minutes. Stir in the orange zest (or spicebush), and the juniper or fir, if using.

In a cup stir the cornstarch into 2 more tablespoons of water. When it is smooth, pour this slurry into the hot cranberry mixture and stir until it is thick—about 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Spoon the filling into a bowl, and transfer to the fridge to chill.

To make: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cover a large baking sheet in parchment paper.

Roll out the Pastry: Remove the pastry from the fridge about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll your first pastry ball out to approximately 1/8 inch. Press out as many 3 ¾-inch shapes as you can. Lay them on a baking sheet and move to the fridge while you work on the second pastry ball. Gather up remaining pastry fragments, work those inot a ball with your hands, and return to the fridge to chill. Roll and press out extra shapes from your second ball. Now use your saved trimmings to make some extras. Lay all the additional pressed-out circles on the baking sheet (or on two, if they don’t fit) and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Beat the egg in a small bowl.

To assemble: Remove the baking sheet/s from the fridge. Place a heaped tablespoonful of filling into the center of half the pastry rounds. Using a pastry brush, swipe a border of water around the edges of the unfilled rounds that will become lids. Carefully place the lids over the filled rounds, pressing down firmly on the edges to make them stick. When all have been covered and pressed, crimp the edges of the cranberry hand pies tightly closed with the tines of fork.

(For making half-moon hand pies, fill just one side of the pastry circle and fold the empty half over the filling, pressing down as above.)

Return to the fridge and chill for 10 minutes.

Just before baking, brush the pies with egg wash. Cut a slit in the top of each, and dust them all with the 2 Tablespoons of sugar.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pastry is dark golden and the pies are lightly puffed. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

See also:

• Taste the Holidays: A Virgin Hot Toddy Recipe
• A No-Knead Focaccia for Thanksgiving and Beyond
• Scarlet Jewels: Recipes for Thanksgiving Cranberries