Peach Fried Pies/Hand Pies

in Lighter & Healthier, Pastry, Peaches and apricots, Pies and Tarts, Project Pastry Queen

A new week, a new recipe for Project Pastry Queen! Ashley chose Fourth of July Fried Pies for this week’s Project Pastry Queen challenge. Fried pies! As in you take something awesome, make a smaller handheld version of it, and deep fry it. My kind of recipe!

My mom frequently made fried pies for dessert when we were kids. She always used a chocolate filling. I was tempted to call her but I had a big bowl of perfectly ripe peaches that I picked up on the Tour de Brisket. It will still be chocolate season next week!

I made 1/3 of the original recipe (smaller batch shown below) and ended up with 6 pies. Rather than rolling out the pastry scraps for the last two pies, I chose to eat the remaining peach filling with a spoon and made the pastry scraps into sopapillas. You know, because there just wasn’t enough deep-fried pastry going on today 🙂

I fried half of the pies and baked the other half. The fried version had big, poofy, airy pastry while the baked version was more dense. I vote for fried. And no worries about the fried version being a grease bomb – my fingers didn’t have even the slightest sheen on them. And I ate mine by hand.

Fried Pies (Hand Pies)

Fried or baked, these hand pies are perfect to fill with your favorite in-season fruit.

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup butter, very cold
  • 2 peaches
  • 3 Tbsp sugar, divided
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup ice water
  • Vegetable oil, for frying
  • 1 egg (optional, if baking)
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp milk
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 if baking the pies. Heat ~2 inches of oil in a frying pan or dutch oven.
  2. Pit and cut peaches into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes. Toss with 1 Tbsp of sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. With the grater blade of your food processor, grate the stick of butter. Switch to the dough blade and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and remaining 2 Tbsp sugar. Pulse a few times and turn on while streaming the ice water into the bowl. Process just until dough forms a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface. (You can cut the butter into the dry ingredients by hand/pastry cutter if you don't have a food processor.)
  4. Roll the dough to 1/16-inch thick ("just thicker than a tortilla") and cut into ~5-inch rounds. I used the lid to a 16oz cottage cheese container, which yielded 4.5-inch rounds. Re-roll the scraps and cut additional rounds. Using your fingers, wet half of the edge of a dough round. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of peach filling into the center and fold the dough into a half-circle, pressing around the edges. Use a fork dipped in flour to crimp the edges and seal the pies.
  5. Carefully slip the pies into the hot oil and fry ~2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spatula/spoon and drain on a plate covered with paper towels. If baking the pies, brush the tops with an egg wash of 1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp water. Bake in the top 1/3 of the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
  6. If making the glaze, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together and brush over the warm pies.

Notes

Yields: 6 servings

Adapted from The Pastry Queen

Estimated time: 45 minutes

Nutritional Information
With glaze:
Calories: 216 | Fat: 7.7 | Fiber 1.7
WW Points: 5
Without glaze:
Calories: 195.5 | Fat: 7.7 | Fiber 1.7
WW Points: 4

24 comments… add one
  • These look yummy! I love peach season and making a fried pie sounds great. Might have to try these!

  • Amanda

    Look at those beautiful peaches!!

  • Your hand pies look amazing. Wow.

  • your pies turned out so pretty! wish i had been brave enough to finally attempt frying something at home after reading y’alls reviews but the baked ones were pretty dang good!

  • What better way to use a juicy summer peach than in these beautiful pies! Absolutely lovely, and what a great dessert/breakfast treat.

  • Those look good!

    A question, though: in your calorie/WW points count, how do you account for the oil used to fry foods? Do you measure the oil pre-cooking, and then again afterwards? Just curious…

    • Michelle – that’s exactly how I calculate how much oil is used in a recipe in which frying is involved. Volume before vs. Volume after.

  • Those look fancy! Great summer treat!

  • Mmmmmmmmm, these look SO tasty! Love it! 🙂

  • Yum! I love peach pie. And thank you for giving the scoop on baked v. fried otherwise I would have baked when it sounds like fried would be more my style.

  • That is such a great idea and it’s perfect for summer!!!

  • Peach pie is my favorite fruit pie! These little ones look good.

  • Those look soooo darn good. Glad I stumbled upon your killer website.

    🙂

  • One of my favorite ways to use the best in the world Hill Country peaches.

  • Wow these look incredible and beautiful. Congrats on Top 9!

  • Saw you on Foodbuzz’s Top 9. Man did they catch my attention! I have a bunch of peaches in my fridge. I really might consider these this weekend. Wonder if they freeze well before frying? I live by myself, so that would be a lot of pies.

    • Yes! I just took a cooking class with The Pastry Queen last night and she mentioned that she made the pies over a two month period for the big Fourth of July weekend in Fredericksburg. She prepares them all the way through stuffing, sealing, and crimping. Freeze on a baking sheet and then transfer to a ziploc bag. Thaw before putting into the hot oil.

  • OMG! this is like sweet dreams personified!!! looks and sounds absolutely delicious!

  • Fried pies that aren’t oily. That sounds like my heaven!! Yumm. I just made and posted about a galette made with peaches, but I think I’ll make this too!!

  • These look fabulous and make me crave some juicy peaches now. Reminds me of the pie pockets I keep eyeing at Williams Sonoma!

  • I tried these lastnight. OH so GOOD! The crust almost tastes like a sugar cookie! Delish!
    http://www.erikajean.com/2011/07/peach-treats.html

  • Carla Kerr

    What is the time for baking these rather than frying. I didn’t see that info anywhere.

    Thanks,
    Carla

    • End of step 5 – 12-15 minutes, or until browned.

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