This Chocolate Strawberry Hand Pie recipe is the perfect play on chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day. These strawberry hand pies are made with a chocolate pie crust and a zesty homemade orange strawberry pie filling.
Last year, I met the sweet Julie (The Little Kitchen) at my friend Jessica Gavin’s sweet baby girl’s birthday party. Julie used to host the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap back a couple years ago. I was so happy to find out she’s now hosting a Valentine’s Day Cookie Event, which is like a virtual Valentine’s Day pot luck that is also a fundraising event that benefits Cookies for Kid’s Cancer. And I’m bringing these Chocolate Strawberry Hand Pies to the party.
How to Make Chocolate Strawberry Hand Pie
For this recipe, I precook the strawberry filling first since the baking time will be shorter than a traditional berry pie. This also gives me an opportunity to gel the filling before hand and make adding the filling much easier. The strawberry pie filling is made with fresh strawberries, orange zest to add brightness, orange juice, sugar, just a pinch of salt, and cornstarch for gelling. Let it cool while you prepare the pie crust.
You’ll need one batch of chocolate pie crust for this recipe. I wrote a post last week with step by step instructions and photos to show you how to make homemade chocolate pie crust. It’s actually a lot simpler than you might think. You need a 3” heart shape cookie cutter to cut out heart shape dough for the bottom and top of the hand pies.
One batch of pie dough is enough for 9 strawberry hand pies, so you’ll need 9 pieces for the bottom and 9 pieces for the top. For the bottom pieces, roll the dough out to about ⅛” and cut with the cookie cutter. For the top pieces, roll the dough out to about ¼”, slight thinner is okay but make sure it’s thicker than ⅛”. The reason for the different thickness is so you can roll the top pieces out a little bigger once you cut them, this way they can drape over the filling.
Brush egg wash on the outer edge of the bottom pie dough, add the strawberry pie filling, drape the top pie dough over the filling and seal the edges with a fork. If you’re quick, you can work on all 9 hand pies at the same time. Otherwise, it’s okay to work with one at a time while keeping the remaining pie dough in the fridge. Place the finished hand pie on a baking sheet and keep it refrigerated while you work on assembling the rest of the strawberry hand pies.
Brush the pies generously with egg wash for shine, and sprinkle raw sugar or turbinado sugar over the top to add a little sparkles before baking. Since the chocolate pie dough is dark, you won’t be able to tell the doneness by looking at the surface of the pie and seeing if it turns golden brown. But you’ll be able to see the filling bubbling through the vent holes. The hand pies should be done baking by 20 to 22 minutes.
These Chocolate Strawberry Hand Pies are such a fun play on the iconic Valentine’s Day treat, chocolate covered strawberry. They are such a sweet treat to pass around at the office or enjoy with some of your best girl friends. You could also make a couple of them for a date night dessert, freeze the rest (unbake) for another special occasion.
More Hand Pie Recipes
- Decorated Strawberry Hand Pies
- Blueberry Lemon Hand Pies
- Apple Butter Empanadas
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Pop Tarts
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
Chocolate Strawberry Hand Pie
Ingredients
1 batch of chocolate pie dough
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ rounded teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 ounce unsalted butter - cold
- 4 - 5 tablespoon cold water
- Extra cocoa powder for rolling
Pie Filling
- 1 pound fresh strawberry
- Zest of ½ orange
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch
- A big pinch of kosher salt
Egg wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon of cream (milk or water)
- Turbinado sugar
Instructions
Prepare the strawberry filling
- Wash and dry the strawberries and orange.
- Zest and juice the orange.
- Add sugar, salt and cornstarch to a small bowl and mix to combine.
- Hull and chop the strawberries into bite size pieces and add to a small sauce pan. Sprinkle the cornstarch mixture over the berries.
- Add orange zest and juice to the sauce pan and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium high heat, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook until thicken, about 3 more minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning the cornstarch.
- Set the filling aside to cool.
Make the dough
- Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a small bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Then transfer to a food processor fitted with the dough blade.
- Cube the cold butter and add to the flour mixture. Pulse several times until butter is about pea and bean size, variation in size is okay, but no smaller than a pea.
- Turn the food processor to “on” position and drizzle cold water over the dough mixture through the water hole, as soon as the dough starts to pull together turn the food processor off. You may need to stop the food processor in between and get a spatula to get the flour at the bottom to mix up.
- Turn the dough out on the counter or cutting board and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Prepare the pie
- Take the pie dough out of the refrigerator and roll out to about ¼” thick. Use extra flour to keep dough from sticking to the counter and roller. Use a 3” heart shape cookie cutter and cut out 9 hearts.
- Re-roll the scraps to about ⅛” thick and cut out 9 more hearts. One batch of pie dough should be enough for 9 hand pies. Place the pie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Beat an egg with one tablespoon of cream, milk or water to make egg wash.
- Take the pie dough out of the fridge, place the thinner hearts on a parchment line baking sheet about 1”-2” apart.
- Take the thicker hearts and roll them out slightly larger than originally, about ¼” more on all sides. These will be use as the top of the hand pies.
- Brush egg wash around the edge of one of the hearts on the baking sheet, spoon 2 tablespoons of the strawberry filling on top. Take one of the larger hearts rolled out earlier and cover the filling. Press the edges together and seal with a fork. Repeat for the remaining hearts.
- Preheat oven to 400°F, let the pies rest in the freezer (or refrigerator) while the oven is preheating.
- Just before baking, brush egg wash generously over the entire surface of the pies. Create steam vents on the top by poking holes with the tip of a paring knife. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake 20 to 22 minutes uncovered.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool to the touch on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Shop The Recipe Tools
- Food Processor
- French Rolling Pin
- Heart Shape Cookie Cutter
- Insulated Baking Sheet
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
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A Little More About This Event
This is the third year for our Valentine’s event! We want to make a difference in the fight against pediatric cancer!
Did you know that cancer is the #1 cause of death of children by disease in the U.S.? There are 40,000 U.S. children actively battling cancer right now. With less than 4% of the National Cancer Institute’s budget going to all childhood cancer combined, I knew it was important for me to get involved.
Help us make a difference by donating to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer! Our goal is to raise at least $3000. Because these three companies: Dixie Crystals, Mediavine and OXO have each pledged to match our donations raised through this campaign up to $3000!
Thanks to many of you, we have reached our goal. You can still donate and help us make an even bigger difference!
Wow, what a beautiful recipe! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for participating in our V-Day event and driving awareness to C4KC’s mission!
Julie! Thank you for organizing, you’re the best!
Trang, You are wonderful for creating and sharing this lovely recipe for such a worthy cause!
Your Mediavine swag is on the way and should be to you soon. It’s a small token of our appreciation for your time and efforts to wipe out pediatric cancer.
Thank you so much for participating!
— Susannah at Mediavine
Thank you for being a sponsor and supporting this cause! You guys at Mediavine are awesome and your matching donation means so so much!!
You’ve done it again. Your hand pies always look so beautiful
Looks so well-formed and delicious.