Cranberry Hand Pies: A Recipe for Making the Most of Fresh Cranberries
Photography by Marie Viljoen. Forage your cranberries or buy them at the market—this is your invitation to bake buttery cranberry hand pies before the year ends. While cranberry sauce is popular on Thanksgiving and Indigenous People’s Day, its inclusion in that meal of meals is often the only time native cranberries appear on most menus. Photograph by Vincent Mounier. A cranberry harvest in British Columbia, Canada. In North America, American cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) are cultivated on both coasts (and in the middle)... ...from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon in the west, in Wisconsin, and in Massachusetts and New Jersey in the east. Foraging for wild cranberries in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. Wild cranberries, ripe in November. A lunchbox ($25.99 from U-Konserve) of cranberry and juniper hand pies. In a previous piece we extolled their virtues via a flurry of recipes for holiday-ready cranberry drinks and cocktails. Fresh-baked cranberry hand pies. Hand pies are perhaps the most soothing pastry of all. Cranberry filling (with cooked apple pieces), on egg wash-brushed pastry. A cold New Year’s beach and a cranberry pie. Makes 14 x 3-inch round pies (or 16 x 4-inch, half-moon pies). For the pastry: Combine the flour... ...sugar, and salt in a large bowl. You’ll hear some popping noises as some of the cranberries split in the heat. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out to approximately 1/8 inch. Place a heaped tablespoonful of filling into the center. Just before baking, brush the pies with egg wash. Cut a slit in each... ...and dust with sugar. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until the pastry is dark golden and the pies are lightly puffed. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.