Have extra pie dough? Roll it out and fold up a simple jam filled turnover. They are sweet, special treat for any occasion. They are also particularly great to make with kids.
To my mind, autumn is pie season. In my family, pumpkin and apple are traditional for Thanksgiving and are always homemade. From the time I was old enough to help, I’d be right there during pie making time. Sure, I was interested in how the pies came together, but mostly, I wanted first dibs on the leftover crust.
Once the pies were in the oven, my mom would let me roll out all the scraps with my tiny rolling pin, fill them with jam, and bake them off in the toaster oven. I thought my little jam filled turnovers were the best thing ever.
Fast forward to today, and I still love to fill leftover scraps of pie crust with jam. Any time I find myself with a little extra dough, I rummage through the fridge, looking for an open jar that will serve as filling (I particularly love them made with this sour cherry and apricot jam) and make an impromptu hand pie/crostada/tart thingie. If can spare an egg, I’ll whisk up an egg wash and paint it over the top so that it bakes up glossy and burnished.
Now that I have kids, I also like to give them a chance to make these little hand pies, just like my mom did with me. One of my little guys is a chocolate lover and sometimes, we use Nutella instead of jam. It makes him so happy.
I’ve included my favorite pie crust recipe here, in case you don’t have one that you love. If you’re on pie duty this holiday season, might I suggest making a couple of batches for the freezer this weekend? It will ease the way when you’re making pies a day or two before Thanksgiving and will bring a jam filled turnover within easy reach.
Basic Pie Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 sticks cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup ice water
Instructions
- Combine the flours, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Add the cold butter cubes to the bowl and pulse until the butter is incorporated into the flours and largest bits look to be the size of peas.
- Then, with the motor running, slowly stream the water into the bowl using the tube. Stop once you’ve added 1/4 cup of water and test the dough by squeezing it. If it sticks together, it’s done. You want it to just barely hold together.
- Divide the dough in two and wrap it in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Store in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using. Overnight is fine too. The dough can also be frozen for up to a month.
- If you don’t have a food processor, pie dough is still within your grasp.
- Combine the flours, sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Grate very cold butter using a box grater.
- When it’s all grated, combine with the flours in the bowl and work together using a pastry blender or your hands. Add water tablespoon by tablespoon until the dough comes together. Divide and store as recommended above.
We liked to spread the trimmings in a pie pan, dock them, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar and bake until crispy.
Growing up, my mom didn’t waste anything and very seldom did she have much of the left over pie crust to speak of, but any bits of pieces was used up in one way or another.
Many times leftover piecrust would be made into breadsticks; would make some twisting strips of it on a pan, brushing with melted butter and sprinkle cinnamon/sugar before baking and then we would crumble it up and put on ice cream; or she would make mini pie……..yes, she may have enough for One mini pie of sorts.
My mother always made enough pie crust for turnovers. They would be put in the freezer for school snacks. Thanks for calling them turnovers. Lately everyone seems to be calling them hand pies. Must be a regional thing.
I never have any leftover piecrust. My pie tins are large, so I have to roll the crust out rather thin just to get it to fit.
If there is a tiny bit left, I will shape it into something to decorate the top of the pie, such as little leaves, or a pumpkin.
Growing up my mom would always make cinnamon sugar pinwheel cookies. She would roll out the leftover dough spread with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar then roll and slice them. My brother and I would always argue over who ate more. Now I might have to make a pie just to have some leftover crust!
Oh my goodness, the things you can do with a pinch of piecrust! My emotionally charged favorite remains rolled scraps sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It takes my back to my childhood in my grandmother’s kitchen every time.
Like Kristin’s mom my mom made pinwheels. When we came home from school and smelled the cinnamon we knew we would have a yummy, warm snack. I think she did this to hold us off from getting into the pies.
My mom let me roll out the leftover dough and we’d sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar or jelly and then roll up and slice into slices. We called these special pie cookies “rolly pollies”. 🙂 It’s still my favorite part of the pie… the leftovers!
Feel better soon! For a person who has “pie” in the title of her blog, I really don’t make pie very much at ALL. The extra pie crust gets frozen for months at a time. I think using it up with jam is a spectacular idea!
Growing up, I was given the scraps of pie dough – they never amounted to enough to do a turnover. Instead, I would make a small ball, press my thumb into it (and inevitably I would flatten the disk a bit more than I intended) and fill the thumbprint with a dab of jam. After a turn in the oven, the exposed jam would get very chewy in the middle, and a little crisp and carmelized at the outer edges. If there were four or five of these little morsels, I was in heaven – particularly as they could be eaten while waiting for the pie to cool.
I’ve been making rustic pies lately, so there’s no leftover dough — perhaps I should do something about that soon?
In my family, we make cinnamon pinwheels with extra dough.
It’s rolled out into whatever size rectangle it can, spread with soft butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Then rolled up, cut and put in a little disposable tin. The last 20 or so min. the pie bakes, the pinwheels are added.
Sometimes I like the pinwheels more than the pie.
Yum!! Definitely on my list of things to do this weekend. Thanks for the lovely recipe!
When I was a child, we did the same thing! My mother always allowed us to help her make cinnamon pinwheels…rolled the remainder out, spread some butter on it, sprinkled cinnamon sugar, rolled it up, sliced the roll – creating little pinwheels, baked them and devoured them! There were NEVER any of them left…they barely ever had time to cool! Now we do it with our kids and have to guard the pan so we don’t have burnt tongues!
I love to do this as well – I need to make a pie just to have some leftover crust!
My mom made fridge pastry. You mix it & it lives in the fridge till you want dessert . . . we never got any leftovers because our kitchen was too small for two to cook. But she would make pie in a jiffy any time. Our faves were berry pies. We’d pick the wild berries & she’d pull out that fridge pastry. Mostly she made rustic pie – you roll it out, fill with berries, sugar & some tapioca, fold the edges over & leave the middle open. Oh my . . . I can almost taste that huckleberry pie.
I also have deep pie dishes so I usually have enough to press into a small muffin tin. I try to plan a small chicken pot pie with leftover chicken, some frozen mixed veggies and a homemade sauce. My daughter loves them.
What is this “extra pie crust” thing of which you speak? 😉 My family never had leftover pie crust. I have no idea why. It’s possible that my mother did not roll them out very thin, or that anything leftover got used around the edges for decoration – I can’t really remember.
Everybody I know has been struggling with colds, sinus issues, and various other forms of ick. I hope that you are on the mend! And that we’ll all get back In full swing this week.