Apple Hand Pies with Cream Cheese Crust

This might be my new favorite crust.  The dough itself was easy to make, and it worked up so nicely - especially for the cutest little apple hand pies.  It's sturdier than the butter and oil version I usually make and oh. so. tasty! 

I used my favorite apple pie filling recipe too.  Because you cook the apples in advance, it doesn't juice and shrink while baking so it's a lot more stable.  If you have The All New, All Purpose, Joy of Cooking book, it's the "Apple Pie II" recipe.  Copied below for your easy reference.   

I made the dough in my stand mixer the night before.  It took about an hour out of the fridge to be soft enough to work, so plan ahead.

Cream Cheese Pie Crust

This would make one two-crust pie or 16 hand pies with an older model Pampered Chef cut-n-seal tool HERE.

Combine in stand mixer bowl:
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar (or 2 Tablespoons of granulated white sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
 
Cut into 1/2" pieces and add while mixing on low speed:
12 Tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
6 ounces cold cream cheese

This should look like sand with some pea-sized clumps in it. 

Drizzle in:
3-6 Tablespoons cold heavy cream (I used half and half because it's what I had, you could probably get away with ice water in a pinch.)

This should start to form a dough.  Remove from mixer, press into a flat round disk about an inch thick.  Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.  You'll want to chill it at least 1 hour, or a day or two.  Cold fat is happy fat when it comes to pie crust, so you don't want it to get warm and goopy. 

Apple Pie Filling

This recipe is enough for a whole pie, so you'll have lots of leftovers if you're making hand pies.  (Do a happy dance and put it on ice cream. You're welcome.) 

3 pounds golden delicious apples (6-8 medium-large), peeled and sliced 1/8-1/4" thick.  This is going to start to sound like a Pampered Chef commercial, but we really do love our peeler-corer-slicer.  It's great for applesauce prep work too! 

With 8 cups of prepared apples, in the biggest skillet you have on high heat, melt until sizzling and fragrant:
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Add the apples and toss to coat.  Reduce heat to medium and cover to keep the juices in, stirring frequently, until softened but still slightly crunchy, about 5 minutes.  Stir in:
3/4 cups sugar (more or less depending on the apples)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
Increase heat to high and stir, stir, stir... until the juices are thick and bubbly.  3-5 minutes.  Immediately pour the apples out onto a cookie sheet and let cool to room temp.  This is now ready to use in your pies!  You can also store this in the fridge until you're ready to use it/eat it. 

Assembling the Hand Pies

On a well floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8" thickness and cut your rounds.  You'll need two rounds for each hand pie, so re-roll the scraps until you have used up all the dough and have an even number of rounds. 

Put your filling in the middle, as much as you can fit while still leaving space for the crimping around the edges.  Wet the edges of the bottom crust with water.
Slightly stretch another round and loosely match it up with the bottom layer.  Using the cut-n-seal or a fork, crimp the edges together.  Move to lined cookie sheet.  Cut 3-4 small vent holes using the tip of a sharp knife.

Milk Wash:
I used a half and half and maple syrup wash (2 T half and half, 1 t maple syrup), then sprinkled some maple sugar on top.  You could do an egg wash, or no wash.  Learn more about what each will do for you over at Epicurious. 

Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden.