Homemade Hand Pies - Cherry cream cheese and Lemon curd cream cheese

I don’t ALWAYS make everything from scratch – I like a good shortcut every now and then. This is a perfect example. I combined store bought pie dough, and canned cherry pie filling, with a homemade cream cheese filling, and homemade lemon curd – to make 2 different kinds of hand pies.

I used 2 boxes of Pillsbury pie dough (containing 2 rolled out dough rounds each). This made 16 hand pies, using a 4″ heart and round shaped cookie cutters. I did NOT roll out the dough, as you don’t want to make it any thinner. Just cut the shapes you want – 1 for the top and 1 for the bottom.

Hand Pie ingredients:

2 pkgs Pillsbury pie dough (4 crusts)
1 can cherry pie filling
1 jar lemon curd (or make your own – see my prior post for microwave citrus curd)

Cream cheese filling:

4 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/3 c granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice
1 large egg yolk

Mix all filling ingredients til smooth. (use a stand mixer, hand mixer, or stir together using a spoon). Chill til ready to assemble hand pies.

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place 1 pie dough circle on a lightly floured surface. Do NOT roll it with a rolling pin – this will make it too thin. Cut 2 shapes for each hand pie. Re-roll any scraps of dough to same thickness, and cut more shapes. Set aside.

For assembly, add 1 egg and 1 Tbsp water in a small bowl, and blend together. (optional – use some coarse sugar for topping).

Place 6 bottom pie shapes per sheet pan. Brush lightly with egg wash.

Top each with about 1 tsp of the cream cheese filling in the center.

For the cherry hand pies, place about 1 tsp of cherry pie filling (about 3 cherries) on top of the cream cheese filling. You don’t want to overfill, as it will leak out.