My Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies are a sweet way to show love wrapped in a charming, homemade, flakey pie crust with a fruit filling. Save the love letter hand pies to Pinterest now so you can always find it!
Valentine’s Day is around the corner and aren’t these little Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies the cutest way to celebrate! I love a cute, little dessert – especially a pie based one because pie is my favorite dessert. These homemade love letter hand pies are filled with a delicious, sweet strawberry jam that is easy to make and will be a hit with whomever you decide to send a little love to.
Making the Strawberry Jam
You want to make the strawberry jam the day before you make the Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies. The jam needs to cool completely and it is best to give it at least 6 hours on the refrigerator, once it has cooled on the stove. It is always easiest for me to just chill it overnight. You can even make the jam a week in advance if you like. Just stor either in a na airtight container in the refrigerator.
This is a slight adaptation from my small batch strawberry jam recipe. You will be making more than you need for this recipe but this is delicious on toast, English muffins or just some bread with mozzarella. The only thing that is really different is that in this recipe you want to make sure you are mashing through strawberries so there are not a lot of chunks in the jam. That makes it easier for them to be used in the Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies.
Making the Pie Crust
This is my homemade pie crust recipe that is included in my recipe book and in my apple pie recipe {HERE}. I’ve been using it for years and really love it in so many different recipes from sweet to savory. (In the recipe book I use it for Chicken Pot Pie.)
It will be best to use a food processor to make this. You simply pulse the food process to combine some of the ingredients and then pour it out onto a piece of parchment paper. I always work the dough with my hands to then form it into a ball. Sometimes I make it a rough ball and sometimes I work to smooth it out. Then it has to chill for 1 hour. After chilling, it is time to cut out the hand pies.
Making the Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies
To make the hand pies, I roll out the dough as I would a pie crust. You can divide it into halves if you want to make it easier to work with. I roll it to about 1/4 – 1/3 an inch. Then I cut off the dough edges so I have a rectangle or square to work with. From there, I cut vertical lines down the dough, allowing 3-4 inches of space between each cut. Then I cut across the dough horizontally and make squares that are also the same height. I cut out the hearts from extra edge dough with the heart cookie cutter in this set {HERE}. I use one of the smaller ones and make sure it is a size that will work for my hand pies.
Folding the love letters
Once the squares are cut, I place them like a diamond on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. One point points up, one points down and one points off to each side. Place the strawberry jam in the middle of the dough. Next fold the bottom point up. The sides are folded in next and I overlap one on the other. Then I use an egg wash over the fold and place the heart onto to hold everything in place. It is all brushed again with egg wash before being sprinkled with crystal sugar. Sometimes I will also squeeze the dough on the bottom points of the letter together too to help keep it in.
Chilling
With most pies, you need to let them chill a little while to let the gluten relax. This prevents shrinking. You can do this in the refrigerator or the freeze, which will speed up the process slightly.
Baking the Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies
Bake the pies for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees. I try to make sure my dough does not get overly browned and tend to keep an eye on them. Check them in your oven after 10 minutes just to see if you like how they are coming along. When they are done, let the pies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.
Tips for success with the Love Letter Hand Pies
- If you want to make the strawberry jam from scratch, make sure to make it at least the day before.
- Make sure not to cut your squares/diamonds too small. That will make them difficult to work with. If you do, and you have not topped them with the jam yet, you can fold them back into the dough ball and roll them out again.
- Remember to use parchment paper on your baking sheet. The jam might slip off the heart as the sugar cooks and this helps with clean up as well as over browning on the bottom of the hand pies.
- You can stores the love letter hand pies for about one day in an airtight container on the counter. After that, I would put them in the refrigerator. You can save them in the fridge for about 5 days.
Looking for more dessert recipes?
If you love a fun dessert recipe like the Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies, try these too.
- Homemade Strawberry Shortcake {HERE}
- Blackberry Slab Pie {HERE}
- The Best Pizzelle recipe {HERE}
- No Bake Chocolate Lasagna {HERE}
- No Bake Mini Strawberry Cheesecake {HERE}
- Homemade Apple Pie {HERE}
- Sun Cookies with Lemon Curd {HERE}
- Strawberry & Cream Cheese Pie with cookie crust {HERE}
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Thank you so much for visiting today, friends! I hope that you love the Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies recipe. You can find a full, printable recipe below. Happy eating!
Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients for Strawberry Jam
- 6 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tbsp of water to mix with the corn starch
Ingredients for the Hand Pie crust
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cubbed and cold
- 1/2 cup ice water Plus an additional 1-2 tablespoons if needed
Egg wash
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp water
- 2-3 tbsp crystal sugar for topping
Instructions
Instructions for the Strawberry Jam
- To make the strawberry jam, combine strawberries, sugar, honey and lemon juice in a sauce pan and stir until the sugar dissolves and combines with the honey.
- Heat on medium until it begins to lightly boil around the edges, stirring regularly. Let it lightly boil for 3-5 minutes. Mash the strawberries with a potato masher to help break them up. Make sure you don't turn the heat higher than medium to prevent burning.
- Then turn down the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Continue to stir occasionally so it doesn't burn on the bottom.
- When the time is up combine the corn starch and water in a small bowl. Then mix it in. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes and then remove the pot from the heat. Let it cool completely and then put the jam in a jar and place it in the refrigerator. Let it chill for at least 3 hours.
Instructions for the Hand Pie crust
- To make the pie crust, combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse. Add the cold butter and pulse again.
- Next add the ice water and pulse again. Press the dough between your fingers tips. If it sticks together you have enough water. If it does not then add an additional tablespoon of water. Test again. Add the final tablespoon of water if you need it.
- Transfer to the dough to a piece of parchment paper and roughly shape into a round ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap or the parchment paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- When the hour is up, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and remove the dough from the refrigerator. If the dough still feels rough, you can work with it a little more to shape it into a smoother ball. Roll the dough out on floured parchment paper. Make sure to flour the roller too. You can divide it if that will make it easier for you to manage. Roll it out from the middle, working in all directions. Turn the parchment paper if you need to in order to help it roll out evenly.
- Once the dough is 1/4 - 1/3 inch thick, use a knife and cut the edges off so it is a square. From there, cut it into strips 3-4 inches wide. Then cut it horizontally so you end up with 3-4 inch squares. Place the squares on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper so they look like a diamond shape. A point should be facing directly up and down. Then cut out the heart with the extra dough. Repeat this process until all your dough has been used. You should be able to get 10-12 hand pies and hearts.
- When the squares of dough are on the parchment paper lined baking sheet, mix the egg and water for the egg wash. Then add a spoonful or two of the strawberry jam to the middle.
- Take the point of the dough facing down and fold it up. Then take the two sides and fold them in, overlapping the bottom point and one overlapping the other. Brush a little bit of egg wash over the fold and then place the heart onto of it to help hold everything together. Repeat this process with all the hand pies. See pictures in the post if needed.
- Once all the hand pies have been folded with a heart placed on them, brush the pies with the egg wash. Make sure to brush the top fold of the letter that is still sticking up too. Then sprinkle the crystal sugar on top.
- Let them rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or the freezer for about 10 minutes.
- Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until they are light golden on the heart and the top of the letter. See the photos for an accurate color representation.
- Let the hand pies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack so they can cool completely. Then serve and enjoy!
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