I love to make these easy crostatas, or hand pies, in the fall with apples and pears!
We showed step-by-step instructions on how to make them here.
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- 2-3 apples peeled, cored & sliced or diced (I prefer diced!)
- 1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
- 2 pears slightly under ripe is best, peeled & sliced
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- dash nutmeg
- pinch ground cloves or allspice
- pinch ground ginger
- pinch salt
- 2 pie crusts I buy the pack of 2 rolls in the refrigerated section
- dash flour for your board, to roll out the crusts
- cold butter cut into small dabs
- 1 egg beaten with a dash of water (egg wash)
- turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Peel and slice apples and pears (see notes). Mix spices (dry ingredients) in a small bowl and set aside.
- Combine apples, cranberries and pears in a bowl. Toss with lemon juice and then the dry mixture (cornstarch, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves or allspice, ginger and a pinch of salt.)
- Roll dough out a bit on a lightly floured surface. Cut each pie crust into 4 large wedges.
- Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (see notes: I use a Silpat) and arrange 4 wedges on each sheet. Arrange 1/8 of the fruit mixture on each wedge.
- Fold edges of each wedge in about an inch, leaving the center of each wedge exposed. (See notes: I often just close them up like a hand pie). Dot exposed fruit with butter. Brush exposed crust with egg wash.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until golden (See notes: Mine take 15 minutes to be golden brown). Cool 10 minutes. Serve warm.
Stacy's Notes: I love to make these in the fall! I've used Gala, Fuji and Honeycrisp apples in the past, and in 2018, I tried Jazz apples and they worked as well. Use a good firm cooking apple. If your apples are on the smallish side, you might need three, otherwise use 2 nice sized apples. I usually use brown skinned pears but I'm sure the green Bartletts would work as well. The pears need to be semi-ripe, not too soft, but not overly hard.
I like to roll the pre-made pie dough out as much as I can. Tim likes them doughy, but I like mine rolled out as much as possible.
If I leave them open like a traditional crostata, then I just dot the dabs of butter on top of the filling. If I've enclosed them, I open them up and put a dab of butter in with the filling and close them back up before putting on the egg wash and sprinkling with turbinado sugar.
These take about 15 minutes in my oven, start checking them at 12 or 13 and take them out when they are golden brown. We store any leftovers in the fridge, and then microwave them about 15 seconds to warm them up.
Enjoy!