Blueberry Hand Pies (for 2)

I'm feeling so much better. Better than I have in a week exactly. Not 100% but significantly better. So much better that I made my dad some blueberry hand pies for dessert last night. I just love how the blueberries have oozed and bubbled over and stained the crust with that deep dark purple.

See we have this thing with blueberry pie in my house. My dad loooooves blueberry pie in his hand. It's got to be one of his favorites, though he claims whatever pie is in front of him is his favorite. But, the rest of us haven't been so hot on the blueberry pie. In fact, up until rather recently I didn't eat blueberries at all.

I'm warming up to blueberries. I used to only eat them in muffins or pancakes, but now I like them fresh or in my oatmeal also (I know -- really shaking things up here). Regardless, its progress. (Though, can we all agree that mushy fresh blueberries are the absolute worst? They actually make me gag a little bit). And my older sister just recently started eating them also. My little sister likes them, I think? (K, if you're reading this can you confirm?) and my mom likes them, but she's pretty agreeable to anything.

Point being. We rarely make a blueberry pie - because my dad is the only one who would really eat more than a piece (or really do anything besides make a face at it), and a whole pie for him just doesn't seem that practical. Plus, we all like the blueberry muffins so much that there's a little bit of a competition. Over the years we've compromised and made small blueberry tarts for him.

But, last year, I saw hand pies on Pinterest and became kind of obsessed. I'm weird. It's whatever. And, I've been plotting to make hand pies ever since. And now I have. And, they're adorable. And, I'll be making more. I just love the idea of a personal pie that you can hold in your hand and eat with your hands (though a fork, knife and plate are probably the recommended and socially-acceptable option).

Also, I'm obsessed with this pie crust recipe. It's from this awesome cookbook I found at a flea market that was published in 1915. I adapted it a little bit, but let's just say this was my best purchase ever (and I bought a Jeep Wrangler, so...). For me, pie crust used to end in tears. I cannot get my grandma's pie crust recipe to cooperate. But this, it worked like a charm. It's definitely going to be my go-to recipe from now on. So, blueberry hand pies...

Ingredients: 

Pie Crust (probably enough for 3 or 4 hand pies):
1 1/4 c. flour
1  heaping tsp. baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1/4 c. cold butter
1/4 c. crisco (throw in the freezer while gathering ingredients and mixing dry ingredients
3-4 Tbsp. ice water

Filling:

1/4 - 1/2 pint blueberries

1/4 c. granulated sugar

salt

flour

lemon juice

nutmeg

Directions:

1. Put the crisco in the freezer while you're gathering and measuring the other dough ingredients. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Grab the crisco and the butter. Cut into chunks and rub into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, forks or hands.
2. Add enough ice water 1 Tbsp at a time to develop a wet dough that just sticks together. Throw it in the fridge while you gather the filling ingredients.
3. Preheat oven to 375. When ready, pull the dough out of the fridge and roll out. Cut out pie bottoms and tops (I used a 4-inch circle cookie cutter)
4. Place a few handfuls of blueberries in the center of the bottom pie crusts. Sprinkle blueberries with a couple pinches of sugar (1-2 Tbsp sugar per pie), add a pinch of flour, salt and ground nutmeg each. Add a few drops of lemon juice.
5. Place other pie crust on top and cut three slits. Use a fork to crimp the sides of the pie together and dust a little extra sugar on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top.