Sourdough Apple Cranberry Hand Pies

Delightfully flaky and golden, these Apple Cranberry Hand Pies feature a tangy sourdough puff pastry filled with a warm spiced apple and cranberry filling. A portable treat that combines homemade comfort with a little festive flair!

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine French

Keyword Sourdough Discard

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 40

Fermentation Time 8

Total Time 9 10

Servings hand pies

Calories 209kcal

Equipment

Kitchen Scale
Rolling Pin

Ingredients

Sourdough Puff Pastry

200 g All Purpose Flour
5 g Salt (you can reduce if using salted butter)
40 g Water (ice cold)
100 g Sourdough Discard (unfed sourdough starter)
225 g Butter (cold, cubed - salted or unsalted)

Apple Cranberry Filling

100 g Cranberries (can be fresh or frozen)
120 g Green Apple (cored and diced)
120 g Sugar
1 Orange (zest only)
20 g Water
5 g Corn Starch

Topping

1 Egg (beaten with a little water for egg wash)
30 g Raw Sugar (for sprinkling)

Instructions

Prepare Puff Pastry

Before you start this recipe, make sure you have already cubed your butter. I like to cube the butter and then sit it in the freezer while I get everything else ready, this way it won't melt as much when you go to use it.
Add the salt to the all purpose flour and lightly stir together to ensure it's well distributed. Set this aside.
Pour the ice cold water into your sourdough discard and whisk together with a fork until it's well combined. Set this aside.
Now, take the flour and salt mixture and place the cold, cubed butter on top. Using your fingertips, lightly toss the butter cubes through the flour, using the flour to break the cubes of butter up.
You don't really want to rub the butter into the flour at this stage, you just want the butter to be coated in flour.
Now, add half the water and discard mixture to the flour and butter and start to bring the mixture together into a rough dough. Continue to do this, adding a little water and discard at a time, until the dough has come together in the bowl. You need to squeeze the dough together just enough so it's cohesive, but not so much that you smooth the butter out, you still want this in big chunks.
You should still have some dry flour in the bowl, so be really cautious when adding the discard mixture.
Once you're happy with the dough, tip it out onto a clean surface and push into a rough rectangle. The dough should still be fairly dry, not sticky, so you shouldn't need any extra flour at this stage.
Wrap the rectangle of dough in plastic wrap or parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill. Ideally, you should leave the pastry in the fridge for at least 8 hours.

Prepare Apple Cranberry Filling

While the pastry is chilling, prepare the apple cranberry filling. Add cranberries, diced apple, sugar and orange zest to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat for around 10 minutes.
Once the cranberries and apple have started to cook down a little, add the water and cornstarch together and then add to the saucepan. Stir thoroughly and then simmer on medium to low heat for around 20 minutes or until the filling is jammy.
Set aside to cool on the counter and then into the fridge to chill until you're ready to use.

Roll Out The Pastry

Now it's time to laminate your sourdough puff pastry, so you'll need to take it out of the fridge and allow it to sit for around 10 minutes so it's not super hard.
Lightly flour your counter top and place the rectangle of dough in the middle. Using a rolling pin, start trying to push the dough out into a larger rectangle. You'll need to bring your muscles for this process!
Once the dough has been pushed out a bit, perform a letter fold (see above for fully illustrated instructions on how to perform a letter fold). Turn the dough 180 degrees and perform another letter fold. Repeat this process 4 to 6 times. This creates the lamination that gives you the flakey layers puff pastry is famous for.
Now wrap the dough back up and place into the fridge for around 30 minutes.
Once you're ready to assemble the pies, lightly flour the counter top and place the dough in the middle of the surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle or square. You want the dough to be around ½" thick (this portion of dough can be rolled out to around 30cm x 42cm or 12" x 16.5").
Cut the pastry into small rounds (you'll need 2 for each pie). You can re roll the excess pastry out and cut more rounds (these pies won't be as perfectly flaky but still good).
Add a tablespoon of filling to half of the pastry rounds. Egg wash the other half and place onto the rounds with the filling.
Use your fingers to gently press them together and then crimp with a fork.
Place the filled sourdough hand pies onto a tray and then into the fridge for around 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 220C (430F).
When you're ready to bake the pies, use a pastry brush to egg wash and then sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Bake sourdough hand pies for around 30 minutes or until golden and flakey.

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