Strawberry Hand Pies for Pi Day!

Happy Pi day everyone!  March 14th is an awesome day because it gives me the perfect excuse to bake.  I've done classic pies and pizza (pies) before on Pi day, so this year I thought I'd shake it up a bit and make hand pies.

Hand pies are great because they are perfect for portion control, and if you forgo the icing (so sad!) they're a less messy dessert option for all those messy eaters out there.  Kids, I'm talking about you.

Another part of my decision to make hand pies was because I got a set of super cute molds for Christmas (here) and hadn't gotten a chance to break them in yet.  I just love fun kitchen gadgets.  Especially ones that I can easily chuck in the dishwasher.  Woohoo!

You can use my go-to pie crust recipe, your own favorite, or heck, even store bought.  Whatever floats your boat.

I put about a tablespoon of filling (essentially a quick jam, you could do any flavor filling you want, just nothing too liquidy) into he smallest sized mold.

This set is really easy to use.  I just lightly pressed down and gently flipped the hand pie out onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through, and remove when the hand pies are firm and just barely beginning to turn golden at the edges.

Once the hand pies have cooled, drizzle with a basic icing.  Then eat them all.  :)

I used frozen strawberries in this recipe because I like the jammy consistency I know I can get every time with them.  Plus, even with the sugar they retain a bit of tartness, which I enjoy.

Strawberry Hand Pies
makes about 12-14

Ingredients:
Filling:

• 16 oz. bag frozen strawberries
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 Cup powdered sugar

Crust:

• 2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
• 7 tablespoons ice water

Icing:

• 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• dash red food coloring

Directions:

1. Make the crust.  In a food processor add the flour, salt, sugar, and butter.  Pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand.  Slowly add the water as needed until the mixture is a solid, bt not sticky.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Make the filling.  In a pot on medium high heat add the frozen strawberries.  Stir occasionally until they have fully thawed and have begun to break down.  Then stir in the cornstarch, lemon juice, and powdered sugar.  Use a potato masher to break up any large pieces of berry, otherwise just continue to stir occasionally until the filling begins to tighten up.  Remove from heat and let cool a bit.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  After the crust has been refrigerated at least 2 hours roll it out thinly on a flour covered counter.  Use a dough press or a large round cookie cutter to cover the dough with circles.  Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each circle and fold the circles in half, pressing the edges down.  Place the hand pies on a lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through.  Remove the hand pies from the oven when the edges are firm and only beginning to turn golden.
4. Allow the hand pies to cool and make the icing.  Combine the powdered sugar, milk, and food coloring and mix well.  Gently drizzle the icing over the cooled hand pies and waiting for the icing to dry.  Enjoy.

cinnamon roll cookies

I have about a million cookies at my house already.  Between my love of baking, cookies the kids made, cookies exchanges, you name it...

So of course I decided to make some more cookies yesterday.  By the way, if you remember that I'm (trying to) keep track of how much I've baked just this December the numbers are as follows:

• about 25 dozen cookies
• 10 pounds of caramels
• 4 batches of marshmallows

and I'm seriously just getting warmed up!  I'm curious what the final count will be now.  

Anyway, I felt like experimenting yesterday and I think I found a winner.  In fact, I can't stop eating these, and I'm usually pretty good at only eating one or two.  I really like this recipe.  It makes soft chewy cookies that taste EXACTLY like a cinnamon roll.  

Start out by making a standard sugar cookie dough.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Take 2/3 of the dough out of the bowl and onto a lightly floured counter.  Leave it and return to the bowl.  Add the cinnamon, brown sugar, and dash of vanilla to the remaining 1/3 dough in the bowl.  Mix well and upturn onto the lightly floured counter next to the other dough.  

Roll both sets of dough out into rectangles of the same size.  I'm TERRIBLE at this.  You can see that from the photos.  I'm just telling you this so you know that it really doesn't matter if your rectangles are perfect.  The cookies will still look good once they're rolled out even if you rectangles are ugly.  I promise.

Gently pick up the cinnamon dough and lay it on top of the original dough.  The dough should both be pretty pliable if you need to shape them a little into matching sizes.

Roll the dough into a log.  If you didn't use enough flour on the counter and the dough sticks a little, you can use a scraper to help un-stick the dough and move it along.

Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.  If you make this dough up to a few days ahead of time (I love options!) just set the dough on the counter for 5-10 minutes to soften.  If you try to cut the dough straight from the fridge it will be too stiff and the two dough sections might separate.

Slice the cookies and place them on parchment covered cookies sheets.  Bake for 7-8 minutes.

Once the cookies come out of the oven you can start making the icing.  When the cookies have cooled drizzle the icing over top, then allow about an hour to dry fully.

The icing takes a while to dry, but once it has you can stack the cookies without smudging the icing.  Yay!

I don't usually frost or ice cookies, they generally don't need it, but please don't forgo the icing here.  First of all, cinnamon roll cookies just aren't the same without it, and I tried a cookie before I iced them (always a must with new recipes) and the crazy amount of cinnamon without the added sweetness of the icing made for a very spicy cookie!  The icing just helps balance the flavors so much.  A necessity.

I like the random icing drizzle, but if you want to get fancy you could drizzle the icing in a spiral or go crazy and cover the entire cookie lightly.

I'm going to have to give these away, because otherwise I'm going to eat them all.  I LOVE cinnamon rolls, and having smaller (and less guilty) versions available anytime I want is very dangerous.

AND, some gratuitous cookie shots...

Cinnamon Roll Cookies
make about 18

Ingredients:

Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract plus 1/2 tsp
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups AP flour
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

Icing

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 5 tbsp milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cream the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Beat in 1 tsp vanilla and the egg.
2. Slowly mix in the baking powder and flour.
3. Remove 2/3 of the dough and place on a lightly floured counter.
4. Add the 1/2 tsp vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon to the remaining dough in the bowl.  Mix well.  Remove the remaining dough onto a lightly floured counter near the first dough.
5. Roll both doughs out into rectangles of matching sizes.  Gently pick up the cinnamon dough and set it on top of the other dough.  Roll up dough and wrap in cellophane.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Slice dough into medallions and place on parchment lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 7-8 minutes.  
7. Make the icing and drizzle over the cookies once they've cooled.

triple cinnamon cinnamon rolls

You know your husband is awesome when he goes to the grocery store and brings home fun new food items to mess around with.  This time he brought home Hershey's Cinnamon chips.  He scored big time with these.  They are so good!  Super hot and cinnamon-y, not too sweet, and very creamy.  Heavenly.  Of course my first thought was to make cinnamon rolls.  Jeff always wants a crazy amount of cinnamon in his cinnamon rolls, so I figured, why not add the cinnamon chips?

I'm never going to back to chip-less cinnamon rolls again.  Ever.

The best part about these extra cinnamon-y rolls?  I used TONS of chips and still have some left in the bag for later!

This was the very first time I've made cinnamon rolls where Jeff hasn't (half joked) that I should try to add more cinnamon next time.  But at the same time, they weren't overly spicy hot or sweet.  Perfect balance of hot, sweet, and creamy.  My personal best.

 Evenly distribute the chips over the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon when you lay out the filling.

Haven't even been baked yet and they look amazing!

Take your cinnamon rolls out of the oven when they look like this.  Lightly golden edges, cooked centers, and don't expect all your chips to be melted.

 Set the rolls aside to cool because its time to make your cinnamon icing!

This is my favorite part about this recipe, and why the cinnamon is tripled.  Cinnamon can be found in the rolls in two ways, and the icing is cinnamon flavored, not vanilla like usual.

 Little tip?  I like to double the icing recipe and store the extra in tupperware in my fridge.  A bit of it drizzled over oatmeal, vanilla ice cream, in your coffee, etc... sooo good!

I made these yesterday and my batch is already half gone!  I like them soft and warm.   Enjoy!

Triple Cinnamon Cinnamon Rolls

total time: 2 hours

makes 12 rolls

Ingredients:

rolls:

• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 cups AP flour

filling:

• 3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
• 6 tbsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup cinnamon chips

icing:

• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:

1.  In a small bowl mix the yeast into the warm water, set aside.
2.  In a large bowl or stand mixer mix the milk, sugars, melted butter, salt, egg, and vanilla. Add half the flour and mix. Pour in the yeast mixture, then mix in the remaining flour. Knead the dough until smooth. Let the dough sit in a greased covered bowl until it doubles in size, about an hour.
3.  When the dough has doubled in size punch it down. Spread plenty of flour on your counter and roll your dough into a 9x15 inch rectangle. Leave one long side empty on 1" and cover the rest of the dough evenly with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and the cinnamon chips. Roll the dough inwards towards with the empty long edge. Pinch the edges together. Cut into 12 pieces.
4.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the 12 rolls 3x4 in a greased casserole dish and cover with a dish towel.  Let rise again for 45 minutes. 
5.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven when the edges have become lightly golden.  Let cool.
6. In  small saucepan whisk together the milk and sugar on medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Do not allow the milk to boil.  Once the sugar has dissolved turn off the heat and whisk in the cinnamon chips.  When the cinnamon chips have also dissolved take the pan off the stove and set aside.  Let the icing sit for several minutes to allow it to thicken.  Once the rolls has mostly cooled pour the icing over top. Enjoy!

These don't last long at our house!