Apple Cardamom Heart Pies

I finally got around to making these little hand pies at home, they turned out just lovely. The original Martha Stewart recipe uses pear and raspberry which was really good. I?ve also made a raspberry and ginger version at work. It was Valentines weekend I go for the cliche on that day.


For the pastry
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons ice water

Toss the dry ingredients in the food processor and add butter. Pulse until it looks like coarse crumbs, some bigger pieces are fine. Drizzle water over it and pulse. You want the dough to hold together do not over work it or it will be tough. Chill for at least half an hour. Roll out and chill again for another half hour.

The Filling
3 pink lady apples or the apples of your choice
3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cardamon
2 table spoons butter
Juice of 1 lime

Peel apples, remove cores, and cut into quarter in pieces. Heat a sauté pan, toss in butter, lime juice, and than add the apples and cool until softened but not mushy. Stir in cardamom and let cool, draining if necessary

Cut pastry dough into desired shape and lay them out. Brush half the hearts with egg yolk and than fill, put top on. Gently but firmly press the edges together. Glaze tops with egg yolks and sugar. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350.


I used a 3 inch heart for the pies at work and used my largest heart for the pies I made at home. The small cutter will get you around 20 small pies and the large one was 6 pies. I re-rolled the dough once at home and it started to get tough, so don?t do more than two rolls or it will be hard to work with.