These babies were developed for my New Orleans Dinner, but I planned way too many desserts, so I haven’t served them to a large crowd until our Memorial Day Steak and Cake Cookout on Monday. What makes this pastry special is the sweet pastry crust that is used. I generally prefer a simple pastry flour and butter combination for my pastry crusts, that is what I use for most of my tarts and cakes. New Orleans, however, seems to have an obsession with sugar, sugar is produced in the area, after-all! This pastry crust is a bit less flaky than the simple pastry crust I use, but the inclusion of baking powder allows the pastry to rise a bit, and the use of sugar, eggs, and milk brings more richness and sweetness to the pastry, I like to think of it as the brioche of pastry crusts. For most people this means more sugar overall, but for me, the use of this pastry means I can decrease the amount of sugar in the filling, or include cream cheese to temper the sweetness of raspberry jam.

This is a very versatile pastry that can be used for large pies, fruit or chocolate turnovers, or any other baking adventure you can think of. It rolls out easily and holds up very well in every dish I have used it. Since I was serving this at a cookout for 25, I decided I wanted something that guests can grab and take with them as they meander around the rooms and back yard. This recipe makes about 25-30 pastries, depending on how thin you roll out the pastry.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Hand Pies

sweet pastry:
5 cups pastry flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
2/3 cup milk

filling:
4 cups raspberries
1/2 cup sugar

cream cheese:
8 ounce package of cream cheese
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg yolk

egg wash:
1 egg
1 tbsp. water

1. Whisk butter and sugar together.
   Add eggs, and vanilla.
   Fold in flour and baking powder. Slowly add milk until even consistency is reached.
2. Flour counter, form dough into a ball and refrigerate until needed.
3. Blend the cream cheese mixture ingredients together, set aside.
4. Boil all but 1 cup fresh raspberries with 1/2 cup sugar for 5-10 minutes until thickened. Cool.
   Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into rounds, I used a 2.25inch pastry round.
   Spread about 1/4 tsp. of jam on center of each round.
   Add an equal quantity of cheese mixture on top.
   Fold pastry sides into center and seal edges that meet together with a bit of water. Refer to photo below.
   Arrange 1 or 2 fresh raspberries on top.
   Whisk egg and water to make egg wash. Brush on top of the exposed dough.
   Bake for 15-20 minutes, cool and serve. Can be made a day in advance.

Lovely hand pies on the cooling rack

Seal up the corners with a bit of water to prevent the filling from escaping.

Total cooking time: 2 hours, makes 25-30 pastries

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