Somehow Christmas is only five days away. I don’t know where the rest of December went, but I’m trying to pack in as many Christmas-y things in before the big day arrives. One of those fun things involves making these fun Christmas Tree Hand Pies. I even have a template you can use if you don’t have a Christmas tree cookie cutter. 🎄
Cranberry and orange are two classic Christmas flavors, and they make for a sweet, yet tangy filling. Add a little bit of icing to each hand pie and you’ve got yourself some fancy, decorated trees.
To get started, you’ll first want to to combine all of the dry ingredients, including the flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Gently work in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender until it is pea sized. Pour in the water, stir it with a fork, and then use your hands to form it together.
Be careful not to overwork the dough. If it’s too tacky, add a little more flour and if it’s too dry add a little more ice water. The dough should be slightly tacky, but not wet. Wrap it up in plastic wrap and let it chill.
As the dough chills, download, print, and cut out the template below. I recommend printing it on card stock, but any paper will work.
Once you’ve cut out your template and your dough is chilled, roll out the dough and gently place the template on top. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut around the template. Place each tree on a parchment lined baking sheet and chill. You’ll do this several more times until you have a total of 8 trees.
Next you are ready to make the cranberry filling. Whisk together all of the cranberry ingredients and let them sit for several minutes. Heat the cranberry mixture for 8-10 minutes until it reduces down to a jam-like state.
Carefully spoon cranberry filling into the centers of four of the trees. Brush the tree’s edges with an egg wash before gently placing another tree on top of each of the four with filling.
Carefully press down around the edges. You can also use a fork to crimp the edges if you like. Some cranberry filling will leak out, but that can easily be fixed before they head to the oven.
Brush the top of each tree with more egg wash and sprinkle a little bit of sugar on each of them before chilling them one last time. Once they have been chilled again, they are ready to be placed in the oven.
Once the hand pies have been baked and are cooling, whisk together the ingredients for the icing. Using a small plastic bag or piping bag, carefully pipe the icing onto each hand pie to make it look like the tree is adorned with garland. Enjoy!
Cranberry and orange are two classic Christmas flavors, and they make for a sweet, yet tangy filling. Add a little bit of icing to each hand pie and you’ve got yourself some fancy, decorated trees.
Pie Dough
Cranberry Filling
Topping
Icing
Template available at http://www.marisabakes.com
Keywords: cranberry, orange, christmas, tree, hand pies, template