Here are step-by-step instructions on how YOU can make delicious Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies right in your own kitchen! It’s my personal guarantee that your results will be a buttery flaky pie crust that envelopes a sweet strawberry filling, and is drizzled with the most delicious vanilla glaze. It’s the perfect Valentines Day dessert that tastes as beautiful and lovely as it looks. Now, let’s make some pies!
How To Make Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies:
Watch the video below to see just how EASY it is to make these pies! Heart-shaped anything may seem intimidating, but if you just take it one step at a time you’ll be super happy with the results! đ
Step 1: It’s all in the Pie Dough.
An All-Butter Crust
I’m tellin’ you, a pie-makers efforts are completely wasted on a bad and unsatisfying pie crust. A pie is NOTHING if its’ crust is soggy, dense, flavourless, flat, and dull. And a pie is EVERYTHING when its’ crust is BUTTERY, CRISP, and FLAKY. It should stand in contrast to its sweet, soft, and luscious filling. A moist filling does not need a moist crust.
That’s why I love my pie crust recipe because not only is it so incredibly simple, it’s also an all-butter pie crust, which makes the flavor unbeatable!
I make the pie dough in the recipe twice because I use a mini food processor to make this dough and can only fit one dough recipe at a time in it. If you have a large food processor, go ahead and make all the dough at once, just split it into two discs afterwards.
Making pie dough in a food processor is way quicker and easier than using a pastry blender, because the processor does all the work for you.
Keep It Chilled
Keeping the butter in the pie dough as chilled as possible is the key to a flaky crust. That’s why after cutting the butter into cubes, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes to make it nice and cold so it stays crumbly in the food processor. (Chunks of butter = pockets of air while baking = flaky crust)
Also when you cut out the hearts and assemble the hand pies, you should put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the refrigerator so the butter has zero chance to melt. Our hands can be so warm when we handle dough.
Let The Dough Rest
Once you have the two discs of pie dough, wrap them up and refrigerate them for a MINIMUM of 4 hours. Letting them rest relaxes the gluten so that they roll out easier. Normally I’ll let the dough rest in the fridge overnight, but this last time I ended up resting the dough for like 3 days (I got really busy haha) and the pies still turned out great!
Step 2: The Strawberry Filling.
Making this delicious strawberry filling is literally the easiest thing ever. Just roughly chop up fresh strawberries until you fill 2 cups. Add the strawberries along with the corn starch, maple syrup, and pure vanilla extract into a small saucepan and stir over medium heat.
Be sure to give it a taste; sometimes if the strawberries aren’t the sweetest, then your filling may not be sweet enough. If that’s the case, add a little bit of sugar to it. Then, let it cool completely. I like to refrigerate mine overnight along with the pie doughs.
You can replace the Strawberries with another fruit/berry.
Not feelin’ strawberries? Go ahead and instead use fresh blueberries, cherries, peaches, raspberries, triple berries, all of the above! The filling is totally interchangeable.
Frozen Berries?
In regards to using frozen berries, I haven’t tried it. I feel like it’d be alot watery than fresh, so I think you’d have to increase the amount of corn starch. If you make this recipe with frozen berries, let me know how it went and any tips you have. Perhaps this is something I should test one day.
Make It Ahead.
What I love about this Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies recipe is that the pie doughs and the filling can be made the day before, that way, the next day all that needs to be done is the assembling, baking, and whippin’ up the vanilla glaze.
Step 3: Assembling the Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies
Egg Wash.
First thing you wanna do is whisk up your milk + egg together to create what is called an “egg wash”. I will NEVER bake a pie without brushing an egg wash on it because it gives the pie the most beautiful golden shine. Aesthetically it’s so worth it.
The egg wash is also used in this recipe inside of the pies to make the two crusts bake together.
Cut out the heart shapes.
Take one of your pie dough discs from the fridge and and roll it out on a floured surface until it’s about 12″ round. As I’m rolling dough out I always sprinkle flour on top of the dough so it never sticks to my rolling pin. Cut out as many hearts as you can.
This is probably a big pastry no-no, but take all the scraps and reroll them together and cut out more hearts. Keep doing this until you have 12 in total and set them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and stick in the fridge to keep it cool.
Repeat this with the other disc. You’ll want the same number of hearts as before, 12, so that you can stick ’em together and make 12 pies. Makes sense, right?
Don’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter?
If you’re not feelin’ the whole heart-shaped thing, circle-shaped hand pies work just as well! Just make sure the circle is at least 3″.
Putting the hearts together:
If you haven’t watched the video above of how to assemble these, scroll up and watch it now. I find that having a visual guide makes the process so much easier than just reading it.
- Take one tray of hearts (12) and on a lightly floured surface, using a rolling pin, make each heart slightly bigger than it originally was. Do one heart at a time and set them aside.
- Dust a clean surface lightly with flour, place a small heart on it.
- Drop a Tablespoon of strawberry filling onto the center of heart.
- Dip your finger into the egg wash and wipe all around the edge of the heart (you’ll have to dip a couple of times).
- Place one of the larger hearts on top. Crimp around the edges with a fork, sealing the edges together.
- Score an “X” on the top heart with a small sharp knife.
- Wipe egg wash on top using a pastry brush.
- Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Using a spatula, lift the filled-heart onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. And repeat until the sheet is full! I was able to fit about 9 hearts on a sheet.
- Bake the hearts at 400 degrees F for 20-25 min, until tops and bottoms are a beautiful golden color, and place hearts from the baking sheet onto a cooling rack.
Step 4: Decorating with the Vanilla Glaze
Making the glaze.
Simply whisk together icing sugar, PURE vanilla extract, and milk and you’ll have vanilla glaze. The easiest icing ever. I loving having this icing on the strawberry hand pies because you’ll find that the filling is more on the tart side and the crust is on the buttery side, so the icing adds the perfect amount of sweetness tying the whole pie together!
Thick or thin glazes:
In the photos you’ll see I have two different looking glazes. The pink and white glaze was alot thinner in consistency (more milk less icing sugar), which made it perfect for drizzling!
The light pink and dark pinkish-red icing in the photos below was thick in consistency (less milk more icing sugar) which made it perfect for sloooowly “glooping” the icing on. “Glooping” is the only word I could think of to describe this, haha!
Thicker gloopy icing is perfect if you’re someone who loves alot of icing. To be honest, I LOVE how the gloopy icing looks on the hand pies, but I appreciate the thinner icing because I only like a small amount of icing on things. (I’m the same way with frosting on cakes too! I never finish my frosting!)
Glaze colors:
For the white glaze I obviously just didn’t add any food coloring to it. For the light pink, I just added a touch of pastel-pink food coloring to it.
To get that deep pinkish-reddish color on the gloopy-icing hand pies, I mixed a drop of pink and drop of BROWN food coloring into the glaze. Isn’t that interesting? Pink and brown…
How to Decorate the Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies:
Guess what! It’s so easy, no piping bags or tips necessary. I simply give the glaze a good mixing with a spoon and then drizzle or gloop it on with a spoon. Sprinkle a dash of some fun Valentines’ themed sprinkles and you’re good to go!
I just love how beautifully shiny the glaze sets on the hand pies. Talk about eye-catching.
Want More Valentines Day Desserts?
Check out these delicious desserts that are PERFECT to make for your sweeties for Valentines Day:
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies With M&Ms
- Heart Shaped Fruit Puff Pastries with Vanilla Glaze
- Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies With Buttercream Frosting
Share Some Love!
If you bake these Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies, Let me know how they turned out in the comments below. And you should totally post a picture of them and tag me on Instagram!
Heart-Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies
Step-by-step instructions on how YOU can make delicious Heart Shaped Strawberry Hand Pies right in your home kitchen! Itâs my personal guarantee that your results will be a buttery flaky pie crust that envelopes a sweet strawberry filling, and is drizzled with the best vanilla glaze. Itâs the perfect Valentines Day dessert that tastes as beautiful and lovely as it looks.
Ingredients
Pie Dough
- 1 1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Butter
- 1 1/2 Cups Water chilled
Strawberry Pie Filling
- 2 Cups Fresh Strawberries roughly chopped, large dice
- 2 1/2 tsp Corn Starch
- 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Egg Wash
- 1 Egg
- 1 Tbsp Milk
Vanilla Glaze
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Milk
Instructions
Making The Pie Dough
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Cut up butter into large cubes and place in freezer to chill.
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If you don't have any ice, put 1 1/2 cups of water in the freezer to get cold. (You won't use all the water.)
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In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and sugar. Pour mixture into a food processor along with the chilled butter cubes. Process until mixture is evenly crumbly. Pour this mixture back into the large bowl.
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Add a Tbsp at a time of chilled water to the mixture, and stir with a wooden spoon until it all comes together in a ball of dough.
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Using your hands, form dough into a disc shape, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight.
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Repeat all the above steps so you have 2 discs in total. *See notes below.
Making The Strawberry Pie Filling
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In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Stirring continually so it doesn't burn.
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Give it a taste, if it's not sweet enough, add a tsp of granulated sugar.
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Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. (I usually stick mine in the fridge overnight with the pie dough discs.)
Assembling The Hand Pies
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Mix up your egg-milk wash in a small bowl. (1 Egg + 1 Tbsp of milk.) Set aside.
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On a floured surface, roll out the pie dough disc until it's 12" round. Sprinkle flour over dough as needed to keep it from sticking. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter cut out hearts. Put scraps together, and roll them again. You should get 12 hearts in total.
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Place hearts on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and stick in fridge to keep cool.
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Repeat with the other disc. This time, once the hearts are cut out, taking rolling pin and roll them just so they're a little bigger than before, because these are the hearts that go on top!
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Remove other hearts from fridge and place them on a lightly floured surface, drop a Tbsp of strawberry filling in the centre of the heart. Using your fingers, wipe egg-milk wash around the edge of the heart.
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Place a slightly larger heart on top, and using a fork, crimp the two edges together all the way around. Using a flat spatula, lift the filled heart onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the hearts are used up. (The most hearts I could fit on a sheet was 9.) Take a small sharp knife and score the top heart-layer with an "X".
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Using a pastry brush, brush tops with egg wash and–optional–sprinkle with course sugar. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 min. Tops and bottoms should be a beautiful golden brown color.
Making the Vanilla Glaze
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Whisk together sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. If too thin, add more icing sugar. If too thick, add more milk.
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If you want white glaze plus a pink glaze, divide glaze into two bowls and drop pink gel-food coloring into one bowl and mix.
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After pies are completely cooled, drizzle them with glaze. Enjoy!
Notes
* I repeat all of these steps twice simply because I only have a mini food processor so I can’t fit all of it in at once. If you have a large processor, go ahead and do it all at once, and just split the dough into two discs after.
