Sourdough Apple Hand Pies

These Sourdough Apple Hand Pies are made with an extra flaky sourdough discard cinnamon pie dough and filled with tender, spiced apples.

While Sourdough Apple Pie steals the spotlight, hand pies are a perfect grab-and-go pie with a higher crust-to-filling ratio, which is always welcome to me!

The flaky pastry is spiced with cinnamon for warmth, and I use a pre-cooked apple pie filling, so you always get perfectly tender apple bites throughout the pie.

I shape the hand pies into half moons like apple turnovers, but you can also cut them into rectangles like Sourdough Pop Tarts so they look like the famous McDonald’s baked apple pies.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Super flaky sourdough hand pies that you can make with any fruit or jam fillings you want.
• Pre-cooking the apple filling ensures it always sets, reduces baking time, and prevents them from being too juicy or leaking.
• Easy grab-and-go pies that are like apple turnovers that you could serve for breakfast, at Thanksgiving, or dessert.
• You can make the apple pie filling and pie crust ahead of time, so it’s easy and fast to assemble and bake. Plus, they store well unbaked in the freezer!
• Use my standard flaky Sourdough Pie Crust recipe or the cheddar crust for my Sourdough Apple Pie if you prefer.

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🛠 Tools Needed

• Baking scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients will make your baking more consistent and accurate.
• Mixing Bowl
  • I mix the crust by hand with a fork in a large bowl, but you can also use a food processor.
• Skillet, for pre-cooking the apple filling.
• Spatula, for mixing and stirring the apple pie filling.
• Bench Scraper, helps bring the pie dough together.
• Rolling Pin, for rolling out the pie crust.
• 4.5-5″ round cookie cutter, for cutting rounds.
  • Round graduated cookie cutters come in handy for cookies, but you could use biscuit cutters or even a floured large glass.
  • Alternatively, cut the dough into rectangles and stack on top of each other.
• Pastry Brush, for egg wash
• Sheet Pan, lined with parchment paper.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions.

• All-purpose flour
  • You can substitute some or all of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour for heartier hand pies.
  • Make the sourdough pie crust gluten-free by using cup-for-cup or measure-for-measure gluten-free flours.
  • In this recipe, I also add flour to the filling for it to set. But you could use tapioca or cornstarch as well.
• Salt
• Cinnamon
  • I use cinnamon in this pie crust and the apple pie filling, but you can leave it out of the crust if you want or use other spices such as cardamom, ginger, apple pie spice, clove, etc.
  • Apples and cinnamon are a great combination in my Sourdough Apple Fritters and Sourdough Apple Cider Donuts.
• Unsalted butter, cold
  • Keep your butter cold when making flaky pastry. The cold butter creates steam in the hot oven, ensuring you get a flaky crust.
  • For a richer flavor, use a European-style butter such as Kerrygold or Cabot Extra Creamy.
• Sourdough Discard
  • Similar to adding vinegar to pie dough, sourdough discard adds acidity to the pie crust, reducing gluten development and resulting in a more tender crust. It also adds a slight tangy flavor.
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week by following my how-to make sourdough starter guide. See my top sourdough starter tips and other sourdough discard recipes.
• Ice Water
  • Helps bind the crust together.
• Egg, for egg wash
  • The egg wash gives the crust a perfect golden brown sheen and helps create a protective barrier to prevent fruit juices from leaking.
• Raw sugar, for a sparkly and crunchy crust
• Apples
  • I recommend using a few different kinds of fresh apples for this recipe to achieve the best flavor and texture, such as making Sourdough Apple Crisp or Apple Butter for Canning.
  • Favorite apple pie baking apples include Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, or heirloom apples such as Northern Spy, Braeburn, Cortland, and Gravenstein.
• Granulated Sugar
  • Sugar balances out the tart apples and helps the filling set.
  • Substitute with brown sugar or coconut sugar.
• Lemon Juice
  • You can substitute with apple cider vinegar, too.

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🥧 How to Make Sourdough Apple Hand Pies

Follow this detailed recipe guide as you make the best sourdough apple hand pies.

1. Make the Sourdough Cinnamon Pie Dough

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Toss in the cold, cubed butter and use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut it into pea-sized pieces.

Then, pour in the sourdough discard and toss it all with a fork to start forming clumps. Drizzle in the ice water until larger clumps form, but the dough is still shaggy and dry.

Dump the pie dough out onto a work surface and use a bench scraper to chop the dough, which will distribute the liquid.

Then, use your hands and bench scraper to gather the dough together and gently knead it a few times to bring it together (image 1).

Add any dry bits on top to incorporate, and only add more ice water if it’s not hydrating.

To create the flaky layers, divide the dough into quarters (image 2). Then, stack the quarters on top of each other (image 3) and press down into another disc. Repeat this step twice more.

This step is called “lamination”, which brings this dough together and will create the stacks of buttery, flaky layers.

Divide the dough in half and bring each together into cohesive discs, and wrap them in plastic wrap (image 4). Press the dough to the edges of the plastic wrap to shape it.

Chill the sourdough pie doughs for at least two hours and up to 3 days.

2. Cook the Apple Hand Pie Filling

Pre-cooking the apple pie filling ensures that the filling sets by activating the flour, cooks down some of the juices to make it less runny, and reduces the overall baking time in the oven.

Peel, core, and chop the apples into ½” pieces. Add the apples to a medium pot or skillet and stir in the cinnamon, sugar, flour, butter, and lemon juice.

Stirring constantly, cook the apples over medium heat until fork-tender, about 5-10 minutes depending on their ripeness. The liquid mixture will thicken as it cooks.

Remove from the heat and let the filling cool to room temperature.

3. Cut Out the Pie Dough

Remove one chilled disc from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes to become pliable. Then, use a rolling pin to roll out into a thin slab. While rolling out, rotate and flip the dough, flouring between turns as needed to prevent sticking.

Use a floured 4.5-5″ cookie cutter to cut out circles, re-rolling the scraps and cutting out more rounds.

Transfer the rounds to a large plate or baking sheet and chill them in the refrigerator while you roll out the second crust and repeat the same process.

Chill the rounds on a large plate or baking sheet until ready to assemble.

4. Assemble the Sourdough Apple Hand Pies

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (191ºC) and line a couple of sheet pans with parchment paper.

Beat an egg with a splash of water in a small bowl to make the egg wash.

Place the chilled rounds of pie dough on the sheet pans and brush an egg wash around the edges to help seal the hand pies and prevent leaking (save the rest for just before baking).

Dollop two tablespoons of cooled apple pie filling into the centers.

Then, fold the rounds in half to create half-moons and seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Cut two or three slits in the top for steam to escape.

Finally, freeze the sourdough hand pies for at least 15 minutes while your oven preheats. The dough needs to chill and rest to create the flakiest crust.

5. Bake

Just before baking, brush the tops of the hand pies with more egg wash and sprinkle with raw or turbinado sugar for a sparkly, crunchy topping.

Bake for 28-30 minutes, or until the hand pies are flaky, golden brown, and some juices are bubbling or escaping the slits.

Let the hand pies cool for at least 30 minutes.

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How to Store and Serve

The sourdough apple hand pies are best served at room temperature for the first couple of days or refrigerated for up to five days.

The crust will become more soggy over time, but you can reheat it for a couple of minutes in a toaster oven to re-crisp the top crust.

To freeze the unbaked hand pies, store them in a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months. Bake straight from frozen, but add a few more minutes of baking time.

I enjoy these sourdough discard hand pies in the fall when apples are ripe and taste best. They’re perfect on their own for dessert, a quick apple turnover breakfast treat, or sweet afternoon pick-me-up.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions