heart shaped hand pies

For valentines day I totally wanted to make something simple and chocolate.  I was really leaning towards this (chocolate) ....but I didn't have almond meal.... and we had already had this (more chocolate) for breakfast.  Then I saw this post at our best bites.  I opted to go with the sweetie pie pops, but #1 I had no lollipop sticks.  #2 - wouldn't have mattered, there was no way I was taking that much time to make something so tiny and cutsie.  Boys just don't appreciate it.  However towards the end of that post, they did mention you could make them hand pie size.  That size 1 recipe of pie crust will make 6 hand pies.  Perfect.  I really wanted to make apple but alas, my apples were past usable, so I opted for cherry (DH's vote.)  They really weren't to hard to make, and turned out super cute.  I did use our best bite's pie crust recipe -because it was easier than anything else, and I used the idea for filling from their site as well -found here - you must scroll to get to this part.  Here it is all put together the way I made it.  Of course if you want super wonderful directions and pictures click any of the links to our best bites.  I still have no photos on my current computer so my blog remains photoless.
These were pretty good.  I liked them quite a bit.  How well they were received by the kids depended on how much they liked cherries. :)

Pie crust (Make while you toddler is napping and put in the fridge for later.  :)

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon shortening (I used butter flavored)
• 1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.  Cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Add water a Tablespoon at a time and toss until the dough comes together.
3. Pat into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge until ready to use.

Cherry filling (certainly you could spice this up some, but I was going for ease. -you probably only need to make about 1/2 this much for just 6 pies)

• 2 cups cherries (I used frozen pie cherries which I defrosted in the microwave -no pre-planning on my part)
• 2 or 3 Tablespoons sugar (I think I used 2 heaping Tablespoons because the cherries are a bit tart.)
• 2 -3 Tablespoons flour (again, I used heaping Tablespoons and I think 3 this time because the cherries were plenty juicy

Directions

1. Mix together in a bowl.

To make the pies

1. Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out 12 heart shapes with a cookie cutter.  Mine was about 3 1/2 inches across.
2. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining with parchment paper.  Place 6 of the hearts evenly spaced on the parchment.  Add a little cherry filling.  Notice the key word.  I thought I was putting a little and leaving enough room for the top - wrong!  They leaked out all over the place.  Of course I took advantage of that and brushed the juices over the top of the pies so they had a sweetish pink glaze, but that is beside the point.  I was super glad they were on parchment because they made a mess.  My fault to be sure, but messy.
3. Top the pies with the remaining 6 heart shaped crust pieces.  Now, if you didn't make a juicy mess, you may need to wet the edge with water to seal the hearts closed.  I certainly didn't.  With or without the water, seal the edges of the heart pies together by pressing down all around the edge with the tines of a fork.
4. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.  (Sorry not sure exactly how long they ended up taking.  I'm thinking it was closer to the 30 end for this size.)

Note -with my remaining cherries and crust I did make 1 pie in a jar.  I just pushed the crust into the bottom of the small canning (jelly) jar and filled it as full as I dared with cherries.  Pretty sure mine was 1 size smaller than those used on our best bites.  While I'm hear, I have to say I just clicked on their cupcake link.  Now I need to try those.  Yum!