TODAY Food Club

Crawfish hand pies are the essence of cajun cooking wrapped up in a convenient little package.

Crawfish Hand Pies

• Servings: 1 hand pie
• Yield: 18

Ingredients

• Filling:
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning (used: Tony Chachere)
• 2 teaspoons seafood seasoning (used: Old Bay)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups crawfish, fish or chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 pound freshly picked steamed crawfish tails
• 1 cup cooked long grain parboiled rice (used: Uncle Ben's)
• Pie Dough:
• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 stick cold butter, cubed
• ½ cup butter flavored shortening (used: Crisco), chilled & cubed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 6 tablespoons ice water
• Egg Wash:
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon water

Preparation

1. Filling:
2. Saute the celery, bell pepper, and onion on medium heat until the vegetables become tender.
3. Add the spices and garlic. Saute to combine, and then blend in the flour to form a roux around the vegetables, over medium-high heat.
4. Cook thoroughly until the roux starts to brown slightly, about 2 minutes.
5. Add the broth a little at a time, stirring to bring all the ingredients together to form a thickened stew mixture. Stir in the crawfish tail meat, and then the cream. Simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Stir in cooked rice.
7. Pie Dough:
8. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt, whisk to combine.
9. Cut in butter and shortening with a pastry blender or fork until the flour looks like coarse meal.
10. Gradually add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough gathers into a well formed ball (you may use more or less ice water). With floured hands, mix and squeeze the dough until it forms a ball. Knead it several times to combine (the less kneading the better - the dough can become tough with too much kneading).
11. Use immediately, or cover and chill until ready to use. Can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.
12. Egg Wash:
13. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and water until well blended. Set aside for brushing pies before baking.
14. Assembly:
15. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
16. Divide dough into 18 pieces.
17. Using a rolling pin on a floured surface, roll out each piece of dough into a circle.
18. Scoop a generous amount of cooled filling onto 1 side of the dough, leaving at least ½-inch border.
19. Using your finger dipped in water, quickly paint a little water around the border and fold other side of dough over. Press and roll edges to seal. Crimp edges with a fork. Repeat the process until all dough is used.
20. Place pies onto a clean baking sheet. At this point, pies can be covered in plastic wrap and frozen for future use.
21. When ready to bake, brush each pie with egg wash and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or, or until pies are golden brown.
22. Serve warm.

Recipe Tags

• Comfort Food
• Cajun/Creole
• Appetizer
• Entree