Celebrating the Hand Pie

Amazing Pies of Prescott, Arizona is our upcoming concept of celebrating all things pie. Sweet pies, savory pies, pizza pies, hand pies and more.  Our staff has been focusing on amazing recipes and tastings to showcase to our community. One item that will be offered daily will be our hand pies.

Much of the world calls hand pies meat pies or pasties (PAS-ties) and traces their origins back to at least 19th-century England, where they were a convenient lunch for Cornish tin miners.

So, what is a hand pie? Trusty Wiktionary defines the hand pie as a “semilunar pastry with either a sweet or savory filing, formed by placing a dollop of filling onto a circular piece of biscuit style dough and then folding it over and crimping it shut. They may be baked, fried or deep-fried.” https://yourdictionary.com/hand-pie

You will find with many cultures there are many names of hand pies. The calzone originating in Naples, Italy, is a casual handheld street-food way of eating pizza. It can be made with dough and a variety of meats, cheeses, vegetables and sauce. It is folded over, pinched and baked.

The cmpanada, originating from South America and Mexico, is filled with savory proteins and sometimes sweet ingredients.

Samosas are made according to traditional Kenyan methods. We have local Safari Samosas, owned and operated by Priscillah Finney. Priscillah is one of our commissary partners working out of our Amazing Pies commercial kitchen. These are triangle shaped and she makes 10 flavors of Samosas each week for customers at the Prescott Farmers Market: beef, chicken, chorizo, mung bean, mushroom, curried potato and veggie, kale, sweet cinnamon apple and wild salmon. If you’ve ever had one, you’ll agree with her, that it’s hard to have just one.

Bieroks were brought to the United States as a German pastry/meat turnover. During the City of Prescott’s 2022 Christkindl German Market, Goods from the Garden, Catering & Events was blessed to create the menu for this amazing inaugural event. Bieroks were one of the menu items we offered and included a savory beef, onion and cabbage filling. They were well received and delicious. We have included the recipe below.

In summary, you can take your favorite ingredients and layer them into doughs (pizza, bread or pastry) bake off and enjoy! QCBN

By Debbie Maranville

Debbie Maranville is co-owner of Goods from the Garden, Catering & Events. She is a certified herbalist and culinary specialist.

Bierock – German Meat Turnover

• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Fresh prepared bread dough or 2 loaves frozen bread dough, thawed
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons lemon pepper
• 1 small head cabbage, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• ½ cup melted butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Sauté beef, onion and garlic, salt and lemon pepper in a large skillet over medium high heat, until beef is browned. Add cabbage, Worcestershire sauce and caraway seeds. Cook until cabbage is limp; drain liquid from mixture.
• On a lightly floured board, roll each loaf of dough into a 12- inch circle. Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Spoon cabbage/beef filling onto center of each dough piece, dividing equally. Pull three points of each wedge up to the center and pinch to seal. Place bierocks on a lightly greased cookie sheet. If desired, brush dough with melted butter or egg wash (1 egg white with 2 tablespoons water).
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot or wrap and freeze for heating later. QCBN