Hot toddies and hand pies.

Apple toddy hand pies. © Ryan Schierling

In a brazen act of nostalgia, I bought one of those Hostess™ apple fruit pies. It was a timely impulse, as it was just a couple of weeks before I learned the brand was going out of business. I remembered enjoying them as a kid, and on the day of my purchase I was curious how I would feel about them now – and how wide the chasm compared to homemade. As it turns out, getting past the first bite on this nostalgic interlude required a level of food masochism I was simply incapable of entertaining.

Yes, occasionally, I like to make little apple hand pies. They are easy and fun, and with just the two of us in this household the presence of a whole pie is downright daunting. These recipes are simple and can easily be whipped up in the time it takes to reduce an apple to a quarter-inch dice and roll out a batch of double-crust pie dough. Heck, if you have a handful of delicate dough left over from those pot-pies you just busted out – use that to assemble a few little hand pies and throw them in the oven while it's still hot. 

My intention was for this to be a happy little story to document our trusty apple hand pies, just the apple-filled single-serving pastry to satisfy that all-American pie craving this holiday season. My typical filling includes heavy cream, which is uncommon, though not entirely unheard of – it seems to be of German or Dutch influence. I have no idea where I picked up this nifty trick, but that little bit of cream conspires to do the work of butter and flour with those delightfully-tart Granny Smiths. I'll include that recipe below, as well.

You see, before I managed to actually make a batch, I got soundly derailed.