Raspberry Balsamic Blue Cheese Hand Pies

This post is part of a recipe that we created and submitted for the Melt Magazine Bloggers Challenge Four! Please help me out by voting for my recipe (Raspberry Balsamic Castello Blue Cheese Hand Pies) and tell your friends to vote by following this link. By voting, there’s an added incentive to win 1 of 2 $50 grocery vouchers from Castello!


I’ve had plenty of pies and I’ve begun to get more acquainted with making and working with pie doughs and pie making. Lately, Dan has been talking about hand pies and I thought that this recipe would be a great way to try my “hand” at this.

I think the beauty of this hand pie is especially highlighted in the handmade pie dough with a crunchy sugary crust. Making your own pie dough allows you to control the flakiness and (more importantly) the amount of dough you use. The step-by-step recipe with pictures for making your own homemade pie dough is in this link.


This post will focus on the filling and the assembly of the pies.


This recipe makes 14-15 hand pies.

Ingredients

Pie Dough

• 1 kg of Homemade Pie Dough

Filling

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups frozen raspberries or fresh (1 bag of frozen raspberries)
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoon balsamic glaze
• 60g (half a wedge) of Castello^® Danish blue cheese crumbled

Topping

• 1 egg white
• ½ tablespoon of cream
• ½ cup granulated sugar for sprinkling

• Balsamic glaze with aceto balsamico di modena was used
  

Instructions

Filling

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a sturdy heavy saucepan until melted.
   

   
2. Heat raspberries and ½ cup of sugar in a saucepan and reduce by half. This should take about 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
   
   
3. Remove from heat. Stir in the balsamic glaze and allow to cool.
   

Assembly

1. Take the dough out of fridge and allow it to come to room temperature (about 30 minutes).
   

   

   
   
   
2. Working quickly roll the dough out on a well floured surface to a size of 21 inches by 17 inches and a thickness of approximately 1 cm. Cut dough into 3×3 inch squares.
   

   

   
   
3. Using a tablespoon, spoon the raspberry balsamic filling into the centre of every other square.
   

   
4. Sprinkle ¼ tsp of crumbled blue cheese on top of the raspberry filling.
   

   
5. Wet sides of square with water. Lay matching square on top and crimp sides with a fork.
   

   
6. Transfer hand pies to a lined baking sheet. Cut Steam holes with a knife. Brush egg wash over the hand pies.
   

   
7. Liberally sprinkle sugar over the hand pies. Trust me, you will want lots of sugar on these pies for maximum deliciousness.
   

   
8. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
   

   

   
   

These hand pies turned out great! The raspberry paired perfectly with the blue cheese and the buttery, flakey crust. In a future post, I’ll write about our brainstorming process and also the pie dough. Again, please remember to vote for the Raspberry Balsamic Castello Blue Cheese Hand Pie in the Melt Magazine Recipe Challenge, I always appreciate your support!


Let me know what you think about this recipe or how the pies turn out in the comments below. Enjoy the beautiful crispy flaky layers!