I can’t believe Easter weekend is already here. Just one month ago, I was still traveling to and from work and interacting with colleagues, family, and friends regularly. Today marks the fourth weekend since Kevin and I started working from home full time. The first couple of weeks felt a bit strange. We had to suddenly switch from working in an office environment to working from home. After almost a month, both Kevin and I have gotten into the hang of the routine. Our daily routine involved waking up, heading to our work stations, enjoying a simple breakfast while catching up on emails, attending virtual meetings, eating lunch, and finishing off the work day. Kevin has definitely appreciated not having to make the long drive to and from work each day. I have also enjoyed not having to trek to and from work each day. While I have missed seeing family and friends in person, I have enjoyed connecting with family and friends over facetime and Zoom. Just this week, I’ve had two virtual hangouts with some of my closest friends. We found creative ways to stay connected. I even participated in a recipe exchange challenge via email and shared my simple recipe for curried chicken salad with a friend of a friend. The recipe challenge requires me to share one recipe with one person and invite twenty friends to share a recipe with another person. The recipe challenge continues on and on as people keep sharing recipes with others. So far, I have received two recipes – one for a simple carnitas dish and another for steak fajitas. I loved being able to see what others were cooking and getting inspiration from others. This morning, I felt especially inspired to make some hand pies featuring a whole wheat pastry dough, caramelized onion, blue cheese, and toasted candied pecans. The inspiration for the flavor combination came from a turban bread I had at Omega Artisan Baking in North Market within the Short North neighborhood of Columbus last year. I had decided to head all the way to North Market one Saturday morning to take a stroll through the market. No stroll through North Market was complete unless I picked up some spices from North Market Spices, fresh produce from Mini-Super, and lunch from Hot Chicken Takeover. As I was strolling through the market, I came across Omega Artisan Baking and my eye immediately caught a glance at the variety of sweet and savory baked goods on display. I decided to purchase a loaf of bread and test out a turban bread they had featuring caramelized onion, walnuts, and blue cheese. The moment I bit into the turban bread, I was blown away by the delicious flavor combination of caramelized onion, blue cheese, and walnuts. The caramelized onion added a sweetness. The blue cheese added a pungent savory bite. The walnut added the perfect crunch. I loved the flavors within the turban bread so much, I just had to recreate it at home. I finally got around to applying the flavor profile to hand pies this morning. It took some patience to make hand pies, but the end result were perfectly flaky, slightly sweet, crunchy, and savory baked treats. To round out the rest of my brunch, I prepared a simple spring pasta featuring crispy bacon, sweet green peas, fresh mint, peppery arugula, grated asiago cheese, and tons of freshly cracked black pepper. A fresh cut orange and some freshly cooked tea eggs completed the meal. Kevin and I ended up with a perfect, yet simple spring celebratory meal for two.
For the Caramelized Onion, Toasted Pecans, and Blue Cheese Hand Pies:
For the hand pie dough:
· 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
· ¼ cup cold water
For the filling:
· 1 Spanish onion, cut into half-moons
· 2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
· ¼ cup pecans, toasted with ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
For the egg wash:
· 1 large egg
· 1 tablespoon of water
Directions:
1) Prepare the dough at least an hour before or the evening before. In a food processor, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, kosher salt, and granulated sugar. Pulse the ingredients for about 5 seconds. Add the cubed unsalted butter, and pulse for another 5 seconds. Pour in the cold water and pulse until a dough begins to form, about another 5-10 seconds. Form the dough into a round disc. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to use. When the dough is ready to use, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit for about ten minutes before beginning to roll out the dough.
2) Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
3) On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough disc into about ¼ inch in thickness. Use a cookie or biscuit cutter to cut out as many circles as possible. Place the circles on the parchment lined baking sheet. Reroll the excess dough and cut out as many circles as possible. Continue rerolling the dough and cutting out circles until all of the dough is used up. My batch of dough yielded 18 total circles.
4) When you are ready to begin filling the hand pies, begin by filling each circle with a layer of caramelized onion. Make the caramelized onion by cooking the onion in a tablespoon of melted butter in a skillet set at medium heat with ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt and some water for about 7-10 minutes, until the half-moon pieces of onion turns a deep brown color. Top the caramelized onion with a couple crumbled pieces of blue cheese and a spoonful of crushed, toasted candied pecans. I toasted the crushed pecans on medium heat with ½ teaspoon of granulated sugar in a skillet for about 3-5 minutes.
5) Make the egg wash by whisking together the large egg and tablespoon of water for about 10 seconds. Set aside.
6) Top the filled pastry circles with the other pieces of pastry circles. Use a fork to crimp and seal each of the pastry circles. Brush each of the hand pies with egg wash. Use a fork to pierce the tops of each hand pie to allow for ventilation in the oven.
7) Place the parchment lined baking sheet with the hand pies into the oven and let the hand pies bake for about 23-25 minutes.
8) When the hand pies are done baking, let them cool for about ten minutes before serving.
Takeaways: The caramelized onion, blue cheese, and toasted pecan hand pies are perfect for a simple brunch or snack. You can use all-purpose flour if you don’t have whole wheat pastry flour. You can also use whatever onion you have on hand (red or white). The blue cheese can be swapped with gorgonzola, a milder variety of blue cheese. I used pecans since I didn’t have walnuts on hand. The pecans turned out just as good.
For another spin on hand pies, check out my sweet and savory pastry pockets, a popular treat amongst friends.