Summer Fruit Hand Pies

What’s more summery than a tiny pie full of sunshine? # 222: Summer Fruit Hand Pies

If you’re like me and you bought a veritable mountain of stone fruit at the store, here’s the perfect way to use some up. I literally can’t resist the stone fruit aisles (yes, there are multiple aisles!) at Berkeley Bowl West. So many different types and colors and I want to try them all!

Do you have a favorite stone fruit? If you don’t, let me sway you: nectarines all the way, baby! Each summer I go back and forth about whether I like the white or yellow nectarines more, but it all depends on which one I have in my hand at that moment.

These pies have a savory secret: balsamic vinegar and ricotta mixed into the filling. I got the idea from a FeedFeed recipe (linked below) but didn’t have any blackberries on hand to make it as written. Happy to report that it tastes fabulous with a mix of nectarines and blueberries.

Always and forever adding a pinch of cinnamon to my pie and tart crusts. It adds more depth (a snickerdoodle-y vibe, if you will) to an often overlooked element of tarts and pies. Just because it’s behind the scenes doesn’t mean it can’t be fabulous!

Whipped to fluffy buttery heights.

I was watching a Loko Kitchen video recently and she bakes up her pie crust scraps with either cinnamon sugar or parmesan cheese and calls them “pie fries.” I’ve always loved munching on the extra crust pieces but calling them fries adds a whole other joyful dimension.

Straight-up glowing!

I managed to get 3 frozen blackberries out of a mixed berry bag I have for smoothies, but then decided to pivot to fresh blueberries instead. Plus, the color contrast is lovely!

A little flour to help the fruit juice and balsamic vinegar thicken into a glorious syrup.

I only had to cook it for half the time the recipe called for, so keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t get too thick. Did you know that balsamic vinegar is made from grape “must” (basically whole grapes squashed, seeds and all)? It’s cooked down and then fermented in barrels for at least twelve years. It’s an ingredient I’ve never thought about before, except for knowing that it tastes great with olive oil and bread. It’s so cool that the same grapes that make this funky, darkly sweet vinegar can also make a white wine if treated differently.

The ricotta adds a fun cannoli element to the recipe! With orange zest and cinnamon, all it’s missing is some mini chocolate chips (and maybe some pistachios, yum.)

Cute lil dessert ravioli.

Getting fancier…

It’s so hard for me to not over-fill hand pies. It always seems like such a small amount of filling, but you gotta have a clean edge for crimping! Otherwise, you’ll just have a fruit and crust puddle. Still delicious but not very portable.