Add a spooky sweet to your fright night feast with an eye-catching recipe for Easy Halloween Hand Pies made with store-bought pie dough and your choice of fruit fillings.
I’ve been dreaming up this recipe for almost a year, contemplating how I could make literal hand pies with a few simple ingredients. I envisioned this Halloween dessert appearing both scary and sweet, and the result is more than I could have hoped for!
It always surprises me how something so fun and flavorful can be made with just a handful (pun intended) of store-bought items, including:
- Pie dough
- Jam
- Eggs
- Almonds
When the ingredient list is so short, the preparation becomes even more important. So let’s break down how you’re going to steal the Halloween dessert show…
How does one achieve such a perfect handheld cutout without using a cookie cutter? Simple! You’re going to use a hand cut-out I made for you and follow these steps:
- Download the hand cut-out
- Print it out (scaled to your preferred size)
- Cut it out
- Place the hand cut-out on your rolled out pie crust and use a sharp pairing knife to trace around it
- Repeat the tracing and cutting out process, re-rolling any pie crust scraps
The real key here is when it comes time to assemble the hand pies:
- Arrange half of them on a baking sheet
- Add the jam filling
- Top each hand with a second hand (you’ll have to invert them to get the fingers to line up)
- Use a fork to crimp together the section around the palm/wrist
- Use a sharp knife to etch knuckles into each finger
And you’re more than halfway there! All that’s left to do is add your egg wash and bake these finger-licking sweets. Once they come out of the oven, add a dab of jam to the tip of each finger to secure the bloody almond fingernails.
And then drop the mic and take a bow because you just won Halloween.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour, for rolling out dough
- 1 (14.1-oz.) packages store-bought pie crust (2 crusts total)
- 1/3 cup raspberry or strawberry jam, plus more for decorating
- 1 large egg, whisked with 1 Tablespoon water
- Sliced almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Lightly flour your work surface then unroll the pie crusts. Using a sharp knife, trace around a hand cut-out (or use a hand cookie cutter). Arrange half of the hands on the baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. (The scraps can be re-rolled to 1/4-inch-thick so that additional hands can be cut out.)
- Add a portion of the jam to the centers of each hand on the baking sheets.
- Place a second hand atop each of the hands on the baking sheets, pressing lightly to seal them around the edges. Using a fork, crimp together the edges around the palms of the hands to seal in the filling. (There is no filling in the fingers so there’s no need to crimp them, but rather lightly press them together.)
- Using a paring knife, make small slits on the fingers where the knuckles would be.
- Brush the hand pies all over with the egg wash then bake them until they are golden brown and cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of your pies.
- Remove the hand pies from the oven. Add a small dollop of jam to the tip of each finger then press on the almonds to form the nails.
- Serve the hand pies immediately or store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
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Recipe by Kelly Senyei of Just a Taste. Please do not reprint this recipe without my permission. If you'd like to feature this recipe on your site, please rewrite the method of preparation and link to this post as the original source.
I work in a school with children with additional needs and we made the hand pies today. Used the children’s own hand as a template. We had good fun and will make them again closer to Halloween!
Thank you from Ireland!
Love this! So thrilled you and your class enjoyed the hand pies, Audrey!