Apple Cinnamon Hand Pies

For the crust:
Whisk together sour cream, lemon juice and ice water in a bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt (make sure the bowl is large and wide if you have one). Add in cold butter cubes and work them into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter. Stop when the butter pieces are the size of blueberries.

Add the sour cream mixture and start to mix it in. Once it starts to clump together, use your hands to form a solid ball out of the pieces. Divide the dough in 2 disks and wrap each one separately in plastic wrap. Make sure that you don’t work the dough too much to avoid the butter getting warm. Refrigerate the dough packs for 1-2 hours.

For the filling:
Add 2 teaspoons lemon juice into a large mixing bowl. Put the chopped apples into the bowl with the lemon juice and toss to coat the apples in the juice (to keep from browning as you cut them).

Add sugar, 2 more teaspoons lemon juice and cinnamon to the apples, mix well. Let the fruit mixture sit while you preheat the oven and roll out the dough (at least 5-10 minutes).

For the assembly:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper (I needed 3).

Once the dough has been chilled, using one pack at a time (leaving the other in the refrigerator) roll the dough out onto a clean, generously floured work surface. Roll the dough out until about 1/8″ thick.

Using a large cookie cutter, cut shapes from the dough and place them on the cookie sheets. You need an even number of the same sized shapes. Once a cookie sheet is full, store it in the refrigerator until you’re done with the remainder of the dough.

Once all the shapes are cut, place a large spoonful of apple filling onto half of the shapes (leave about a 1/2″ border without filling). Place the filled dough shapes back on the prepared baking sheets. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the shapes with the beaten egg. Place another similar dough shape on top of the filling, stretching the edges to meet one another. Crimp the edges together with a fork until sealed. Brush the tops with more egg and cut tiny slits in the tops to vent. Top each pie with a little sprinkle of the sanding sugar.

Bake pies for about 20-25 minutes (or until the filling is bubbly and the crust starts to turn golden). Allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 10-20 minutes before handling. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.