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These raspberry cream cheese hand pies were truthfully unplanned.
If you notice, I rarely am adventurous with desserts beyond cookies, macarons, and cakes. They bring me the most joy, but sometimes other desserts have their turn to shine. The more rustic, often unfinished, that don’t take hours to decorate, and can be devoured right away. These raspberry cream cheese hand pies were it!
They are a product of leftover raspberry reduction, too many hours on Youtube watching Gourmet Makes with Claire Saffitz try and hack her way to nostalgic snacks. Specifically, this episode about pop tarts.
Then there was Pi Day a few days ago. It’s like the universe was conspiring to point me in the direction of these raspberry hand pies.
Let these be your bright spot for the week!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Hand Pies
With all that is going on, it doesn’t feel like we’re breaking out of hibernation anytime soon. But if you can swing pie crust, a bit of cream cheese, and some raspberries (or raspberry jam), these hand pies can be yours.
These raspberry and cream cheese in the filling and the glaze, making it a perfect balance of the two flavors!
Pie Dough
It’s easy with a few ingredients, but it usually scares the crap out of me.
At this point, I can make macarons in my sleep, but pies are just something that I haven’t tackled too often. I love the buttery, flaky texture of freshly baked pastries, but I could just not get the texture right.
Here’s the trick that finally worked for me to get that flaky texture the way it should be – GRATE YOUR COLD BUTTER.
The rest of the pie dough is pretty standard. Sally’s Baking Addiction has a phenomenal resource on making flaky pie crust if you need more direction.
Tips for Pie Crust
If you’re making your pie crust dough at home, here are my best tips:
- Grate your cold butter into the dough mixture. This worked wonders and the result was an evenly flaky pie crust, with pockets of butter all over!
- Keep everything chilled as you work – use ice water, use a cold countertop if you can, or pop it all into the fridge if you need it to chill a bit while working the dough.
- Make sure to let the pie crust rest in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before rolling it out and adding your filling
Really though, if you don’t want to go through the trouble, you can also buy pie crust dough!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Filling
I had a raspberry reduction in the fridge that was part of a cake filling. I reduced it to a jammy texture on a low flame on the stove and cooled it before using it as a filling. You can totally make your own reduction with fresh raspberries, or just add some raspberry jam to make life easier!
You don’t need a lot of filling. I used less than a tablespoon of raspberry jam and cream cheese in each hand pie.
Don’t forget to cut some holes on the pies to allow the steam to escape!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Glaze
This glaze is completely optional, these raspberry cream cheese pies taste great without it. But then where would the sprinkles go?
This glaze was my favorite part of these hand pies. It’s pink because of the raspberry. And it was a perfect vehicle for sprinkles of course!
Recipes you’ll love
If you are looking for more summer baking ideas, here are some more recipes you’ll love:
- Lemon Blueberry Cookies
- Raspberry and White chocolate blondies
- Strawberry and White Chocolate Muffins
- Raspberry Cheesecake French Toast
Follow me on Instagram @sprinklesandscribbles for more baking inspiration!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Hand Pies
Ingredients
Basic Pie Dough
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for rolling
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter grated
- 1/2 cup ice water
Raspberry-Cream Cheese Filling
- 6 – 8 tbsp raspberry jam or reduction
- 6 – 8 tbsp cream cheese
- 2 tbsp egg whites
Raspberry Cream Cheese Glaze
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp raspberry jam or reduction
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
Pie Crust Dough
- Measure 1/2 cup water, and add ice to it. This will be your ice cold water
- In a large bowl whisk together, the flour, salt and sugar.
- Add in grated butter, and with two forks or a pastry cutter to mix the butter into the flour mixture
- Measure out 1/2 cup water from your ice water, and slowly drizzle in the ice water, while mixing the pie dough, until it all just starts to clump together
- Transfer the pie dough onto your work surface, and with your hands, fold the dough into itself until it comes together.
- Wrap and chill it in the fridge, for at least 2 hours, or even overnight.
Filling the Hand Pies
- Preheat oven to 400-F
- When ready to use, remove the pie dough from the frdige, and gently roll out the dough.
- Prepare a cookie sheet, with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
- Using a rectangle cookie cutter cut the dough into 14-16 rectangles for the top and bottom of the hand pies.
- Lay the rectangle in a single layer on the prepared cookie sheet
- Add 1 tbsp of raspberry filling, and 1/2 to 1 tbsp of cream cheese to the middle of half the rectangles, leaving a border around the edges.
- Brush edges with egg whites
- Lay the empty rectagle pie crust on top of the fllled ones
- Using a fork, bind the top and bottom, then poke holes to the top for the steam to escape
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until pies are golden brown
- Let cool for 10 minutes before glazing
Raspberry Cream Cheese Glaze
- While pies are baking, make the raspberry cream cheese glaze
- In a bowl, beat the room temperature cream cheese with raspberry filling until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, while until it all comes together and is a glaze consistency. (Add more powdered sugar if it is too runny, and more milk if it is too thick).
- Once pies are cooled, add glaze and sprinkles as you like. Enjoy!
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