These Caramel Apple Hand Pies have a flaky butter crust, sweet apple-walnut filling, and warm spices. The perfect treat for a cozy night, tailgating, and your holiday dessert table.
In the great list of things I cannot resist, cute little hand pies rank near the top. They’re all the things I love about a good apple pie: flaky crust, luscious filling, warm spices. It’s all wrapped up into a portable, pre-portioned treat.
My favorite way to make hand pies is with a caramel apple walnut filling. I combine diced apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, toasted walnuts, and my easy Apple Cider Caramel sauce. Baked in an all butter crust until golden, these pies are a perfect nosh on a chilly night, offered on a holiday dessert buffet, or packaged in a bakery box as a gift for a friend.
I certainly wouldn’t say no to a gift of Apple Hand Pies, would you?
What Kind of Apples Are Best for Hand Pies?
Just as with my Homemade Apple Pie and Miniature Apple Raspberry Pies, I like to par-cook the filling for my Caramel Apple Hand Pies. It ensures that the apples are tender, even with the short period of time that these hand pies bake. Plus, it keeps the crust from becoming soggy when raw apples release their juices.
Since you’ll be cooking the apples on the stove, it’s best to choose an apple that retains its shape, while still becoming tender. My favorite apples to use in this recipe are sweet-tart Fuji, though other varieties, like Braeburn and Jonagold work well too.
It’s best not to use varieties like Red Delicious or McIntosh, which tend to turn mushy when you cook them.
If you like a tart apple to offset the sweet caramel in the filling, you can use a variety like Granny Smith. Even with the caramel, they’re a bit too sour for my family’s preferences, but many love the contrast!
How to Make Hand Pies
Even though you make them individually, Apple Hand Pies don’t require much more time than making a whole pie. Just roll out your dough, and instead of fitting it into a pie plate, use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into rounds.
You can either make a larger quantity of smaller hand pies by folding the rounds into half moons over the apples (this will require less filling on each round). Or, as I’ve done in this post, you can top the apple filling with a second round of dough for a circular hand pie.
Tips for Success:
- Keep the dough cold: If the dough starts to warm up too much while you’re cutting the rounds and re-rolling the scraps, return it to the refrigerator to chill again before continuing.
- Be sure the filling is cooled before filling the pies. Hot apples will warm up the bottom layer of all-butter dough too quickly.
- Don’t overfill the pies. You only need about a tablespoon for half moon pies (4-inch rounds), and two tablespoons for circular pies (5-inch rounds). Overfilled pies will be prone to splitting when baking, and that gets a bit messy.
- Seal the pies well. Lightly brush the edges of the bottom dough round with water so the top sticks to it. I like to use a fork to crimp the two layers together and create a tight seal to minimize the chance of filling leaking out. You can also decoratively fold or braid the edges, as you would an empanada.
- Don’t forget the finishing touches! Just as with a large apple pie, cut a couple of small slits in the top of each pie to allow steam to escape while they’re baking. A light egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar give the pies a gorgeous color.
Extra Credit: Decorating Hand Pies
If you’d like to give the hand pies a little extra flair, as shown in the photos for this post, make pie crust cutouts and use them to adorn the pies before baking! I used my trusty leaf pie crust cutters for these (you can find them at most gourmet kitchen stores during the fall and holiday seasons).
Lay the dough cutouts onto the pies after you apply the egg wash, so that they’ll adhere to the top. Then, lightly brush the cutouts themselves with egg wash and proceed to sprinkling the pies with sugar.
Little details like these don’t take long to pull off and really make an extra special presentation for guests or gifts.
Making Hand Pies and Family Memories
Some of my best memories of my childhood are of cooking and baking with my mother and grandmother. I always felt so special when I got to help them prepare a treat that our family was going to eat, especially during the holidays.
These pies are a great recipe if you have little helpers in the kitchen. Kids love to help cut out the dough rounds with the cookie cutters, spoon out the cooled filling, crimp the edges together, and cut out the leaf shapes.
Funny story: As a child of the 80’s, I used to prop my Cookie Monster doll on the kitchen counter to help us as we baked. My grandmother (“Nanny”) used to “feed” him dough scraps that she was rolling out. To my little 4-year-old eyes, the pie dough would disappear as he “ate” it, and I was nothing short of delighted.
To this day, I’ve never quite figured out where Nanny hid the dough! Up her sleeve? Inconspicuously dropped behind the doll? It’s one of the great unsolved mysteries in my pie making history. {cue laugh track}
On that note, I wish you warm pies and memory making with your families this holiday season!
{ad} If you have an air fryer, you can use it to make hand pies as well! Check out the recipe video I did with Good Housekeeping Magazine and KRUPS for my Air Fryer Apple Raspberry Hand Pies.
Apple Hand Pies with Caramel Sauce and Walnuts
Ingredients
- 1 recipe all butter pie crust
- 2-3 Fuji apples peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch dice (3 cups)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch kosher salt
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tsp water ("slurry")
- 1/4 cup caramel sauce (cooked to 130 degrees F and cooled), plus additional for drizzling (optional)
- 1/4 cup toasted walnuts
- 1 large egg yolk , beaten with 1 teaspoon water
- granulated sugar , for sprinkling pies
- flaked sea salt , for serving (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium nonstick pot, stir together diced apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat (apples will begin to release their juices as they heat). Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until apples begin to soften, but still retain their shape, about 12-15 minutes.
- Add the cornstarch slurry to the filling mixture. Increase heat to medium and cook for 1-2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in caramel sauce and toasted walnuts. Cool filling to room temperature.
- While the filling is cooling, roll your pie crusts to 1/8" inch thick. Cut the dough into 5-inch circles using a cookie cutter, re-rolling the scraps as needed.
- Place about 2 tablespoons of filling onto the center of each circle. Brush the edges of the dough with water and place a second dough round over the filling. Press the edges to seal and use a fork to crimp the sealed edges. Place pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly brush the chilled hand pies with egg wash. Use the tip of a paring knife to pierce a few small slits in the top of each pie. Lightly sprinkle the tops with sugar.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden and filling is lightly bubbling in the slits in the crust. Remove pies to a wire rack to cool until just warm.
- Serve, drizzled with a little extra caramel sauce (and maybe a sprinkling of flaked sea salt, too!), if desired.
Video
Nutrition Estimate
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
About our recipes
Please note that our recipes have been developed using the US Customary measurement system and have not been tested for high altitude/elevation cooking and baking.
Your hand pies look so amazing! I think they’re going to have to make an appearance this holiday. Your leaves on the pies look stunning as well. I also love that little funny story – we had “magic” tricks when I was younger too and I still haven’t figured some of them out as well.