This adorably cute Chocolate Heart Shaped Hand Pie has a nice chocolate flavor and a buttery and flaky texture. They are small in size but definitely big in chocolate flavor inside and out.

I love hand pies, for me they are the perfect size and also a perfect grab and go snack that I can easily fit in my purse. Yes, chocolate pie in my purse 🙂 Hand pies are not overwhelming both in size and filling, and do I even have to  mention how adorably cute they are? Ok, maybe being cute and adorable is not the first criteria that will convince you to make this hand pie, so we should probably focus on how good this hand pie taste. Chocolate pie dough and chocolate filling equal double chocolate treat. Now, you think this is a good enough reason for you to try this?

The Pie Dough

I always use all butter in all my pie dough, I find that it provides better taste, flavor and texture. I know some pie dough recipe sometimes uses a combination of butter and shortening, but I’ve never tried that kind of variation. But there is one thing that I added here that I don’t normally add in my regular pie dough, I’ve added a small amount of cream to make the dough soft and creamy.  The addition of cream aims to counter the dryness of the cocoa powder. Also, the cream made the crust creamy and it helped avoid cracking. The last thing that we want for this pie is a dry pie dough

The Chocolate Filling

I want to make this as simple and easy as possible so I used a chocolate spread. I found a Lindt chocolate spread and that’s what I used, they’re so good. I used milk chocolate filling for some, and dark chocolate filling and Nutella filling for others. It was like a surprise in every bite because I don’t know what I will be getting.

Make-Ahead

Pie dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days. When ready to use, thaw until soft enough to roll and cut. Better yet, cut and fill the hand-pie keep refrigerated for 2 days or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator then bake as per instruction.

Storage

Since this is an all butter plus cream based pie dough and chocolate filled, it is not advisable to leave it in a warm temperature. It can last few days outside as long as the temperature is not too hot, I left it up to 3 days and it was still ok. To be safe, keep any left over refrigerated.

I have couple of hand-pie recipes in my blog but they are either savory or fruity so this one is kind of stand-out from the rest because it is a chocolate flavored hand-pie. Being a chocolate lover, I cannot believe that I don’t actually have a chocolate hand-pie in my website. But better late than never, so here we are and let me give you few guidelines before we dive into the recipe

Tips to a Moist and Buttery Pie Dough

• COLD Ingredients – Pie dough 101 basic, always use cold ingredients when making the pie dough. Cold ingredients makes a great flaky pie, so make sure that the butter and cream are all cold. I even put all the dry ingredients in the fridge to chill before mixing it with the butter.
• Add Cream or Full Fat Milk: Cocoa powder always have the tendency to dry out the dough and so using a thicker and creamier cream or milk will give extra moisture to the dough. You don’t want to pour in all  the cream at the same time, add it gradually and feel the texture of the dough. You want the dough to be soft and yet firm enough to roll without cracking.
• Do Not Over-Work the Dough: The more that you work on the dough, the tougher it could get. Tough dough will result to a dry and tough hand pie, you don’t want that. Gather the dough to form a disk then chill the dough until firm enough to roll.
• Chill the Dough: Chilling makes the dough more stable so that it doesn’t loose it’s shape when bake. This is even more  important if you are using a decorative cookie cutter. So chill the dough before cutting and after cutting into desired shape. You can even freeze the un-baked filled hand-pie.

There you go, 4 simple guidelines to soft and butter chocolate hand pie. Let’s put them to use and please do let me know how it goes, ok?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 4 tablespoon unsweetened Natural or Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder
• 4 tablespoon Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted Butter, very cold and cubed
• 2 tablespoon cold Heavy Cream or Milk
• 1 teaspoon coarse Sugar (optional) – for sprinkling on top
• 2 tablespoon melted chocolate

Instructions:

1. Make the Dough: Place the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and cubed butter into a large food processor. Pulse 15-20 times until coarse crumbs form. Alternatively, you can use a large bowl and pastry cutter. Slowly drizzle in the cold milk or cream while pulsing (or stirring). After all the milk or cream is added, the dough should look slightly shaggy and be a little soft. If it’s too dry, add another tablespoon of milk or cream. Try not to overwork the dough. Form the dough into 1-inch thick. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours and up to 5 days.
2. Shape and Cut the Dough: Transfer the dough on a floured work surface, carefully roll the pie dough with a rolling pin, about 1/4-inch thick. Cut into heart shapes (using a 3 inch heart cookie cutter). Re-roll any scraps and cut into heart shape until all dough are used. Arrange the cut dough into a tray and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
3. Fill the Hand Pie: Remove the cut dough  from  the refrigerator. Brush the sides with water or cream. Put 1 teaspoon Nutella (or any chocolate spread filling) in the center. You can add more Nutella just make sure it is not too much to spread out of the pie when you seal it. Cover with another piece of cut dough and press the side with a fork to seal.
4. Chill the Pie: Chill the pie while you pre-heat the oven to 350F.
5. Bake for 15 – 18 minutes.
6. Cool: Leave in the pan to cool.
7. Melt Chocolate (optional) – Chop and melt the chocolate in the microwave (30 seconds interval). Drizzle over the hand pie or dip the hand pie in the melted chocolate or serve as is.

Makes 10 pieces

Nutritional Information

Nutritional Information was calculated using Veryfitwell Recipe Calorie and Nutrition Calculator. For details about Nutritional Information in this website, please read the Disclaimer page.

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