Blackberry Hand Pies

Perhaps one of the least fulfilled food requests around these parts is pie.  My wife loves pie, and while I generally go on a pie bender in the autumn, I'm just not captivated by the whole concept.  It's quite a bit of work for dessert, when really I just want to be cramming chocolate in my mouth.

Especially now that we are (temporarily) a household of two, I cannot justify keeping a pie around.  She will certainly eat a lot of it, but my wife may not be able to polish off an entire pie by herself before it begins to lose its charm.  And there's nothing worse than spending hours on a dish, only to see it rot away in the fridge.

Enter the hand pie.  I can fulfill my wife's pie requests with minimal work, and I can make only as many as she will be able to reasonably eat.  Not to mention they are adorable.  I have a soft spot for adorable food.  

I had a friend growing up who loved those cherry hand pies made by Hostess, which probably were 0% cherry.  If we were hanging out downtown, she would often pick one up at the local food market and eat it slowly and lovingly.  This gorgeous little pies remind me of those, except they share basically nothing.  Where those were fake, these are all real.  And while you might eat them lovingly, I doubt you will be able to eat them slowly.  

Blackberry Hand Pies
Makes 12

3/4 lb blackberries
1 large apple, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 T cornmeal
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 c sugar

1 batch dough for a double-crust pie
1 T milk

Cook blackberries, apple, cornmeal, cinnamon, and 6 tablespoons sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir frequently until mixture boils and thickens, about 5 minutes.  Cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll dough to a 3/4 inch thickness.  Cut into 5 inch squares.  Place heaping tablespoons of filling in the middle of each square, and moisten the edges of the dough with milk.  Fold over to form triangles, pressing to seal.  Brush pies with milk and sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar over them.

Bake in batches until golden, abut 30 minutes.