Blueberry Hand Pies

You can either cook the filling or keep it raw. Both methods make a wonderful pie filling — you can hardly tell them apart after baking the pie. Do you want to stand at the stove or not? If you take time to cook the filling and have extra, consider stirring it into yogurt, which is delicious.

If you wish to cook the filling, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and set over moderate heat. Cook, stirring, until berries pop and sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. If you plan to keep it raw, simply mix ingredients together in a bowl or jar. I store the raw filling overnight in the refrigerator, which helps thicken the juices, especially when using frozen berries.

To make the dough, use a food processor or cut butter and shortening into flour using a pastry blender — or, as my grandmother did, using two table knives. Add flour and salt into food processor bowl. Add butter and shortening, and pulse until mixture is uniformly crumbly. From the glass of ice water, measure out 4 tablespoons and sprinkle over the crumbly dough. Pulse a few times to incorporate. If mixture seems dry, add 2 more tablespoons of ice water and pulse just until the mixture begins to form a ball.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat into a rough disk a couple inches thick. Cut in half, then flatten and round each half into 2 smaller disks, both about an inch thick. Wrap each in plastic or parchment and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll the dough out quite thinly on a lightly floured surface, and use a yogurt container or bowl about 5 inches in diameter as a guide for cutting out circles with a knife. Aim to get 4 circles from each dough disk. Cut smaller decorative shapes from the scraps, rerolling as necessary; these can decorate the pies. Roll each circle to be a bit thinner and bigger, about 6 inches in diameter.

Transfer each circle to a parchment paper- or Silpat-lined sheet pan. Spoon 2 heaping tablespoons of filling into the center, fold over into half-moons, and crimp edges with a fork. Top with decorative cutouts, brush each hand pie with egg wash, cut steam vents (if you use fresh berries, this will keep filling explosions to a minimum), and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until crust begins to brown. Let cool a few minutes on pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.