It’s Rosh Hashanah! If you’re like ‘rosh a-what?’ it’s the Jewish New Year and I am here to celebrate with some Apple and Honey Hand Pies!
Here is why Jewish New Year is 100% times better than the 1st of January:
- It’s around Autumn which is obviously the best season because I’m BASIC
- You can wear cozy sweaters but not be bundled up in a coat
- Everyone knows that school year feels more like the beginning of the year
- By the end of December everyone is sick of each other and I’m like ‘plz let me stay home and not interact with people anymore’
- I really, really, really like apple desserts.
I feel like those are pretty good reasons?
Now for Rosh Hashanah, it is all about the harvest and the cycle of life, which is symbolised in all the delightful food we have! Sometimes you’ll see quite a lot of pomegranates in Rosh Hashanah recipes, because they’re meant to have 613 seeds just like the 613 commandments in the Torah (I am not going to count how many seeds are in a pomegranate), but you’ll also find a whole lot of apple and honey! At Rosh Hashanah dinners, you’ll star off the evening with dipping apples in honey to have a sweet year. Apples and pomegranates are also round, meant to symbolise the cycle of life.
The bakes I’ve done before are usually apple and honey cakes, but I wanted to mix it up and try doing an apple and honey hand pie! While I used a pie dough with dairy, if you want to keep things dairy free and parve, you can make your fave dairy free pie dough or buy ready made pie dough/shortcrust pastry.
I also wanted to have a bit of fun with these pies, and I used an alphabet cookie cutter to stamp out Shana Tovah to say have a good year! And with the past year we’ve had I think we could all use that.
Apple and Honey Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 1 pie dough recipe, chilled Enough for a double crust
- 4 apples Cored, peeled and diced
- 50 grams light brown sugar
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon honey
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- juice 1 lemon
- zest 1 lemon
Egg wash
- 1 egg beaten with a fork
- 2 tablespoon raw sugar
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium saucepan, add the sugar and cook, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and begins to caramelise.
- Add the apples, cinnamon and honey and stir until the liquid from the apples cook off and the apples begin to caramelise, about 8-10 minutes.
- Transfer the apples to a bowl and stir in the lemon zest and juice. Set aside to cool.
- Roll out half of your pie dough and cut out circles using a 10cm cutter. Cut out 10 circles and transfer them to the baking parchment and keep in fridge.
- Roll out second half and cut out 10 circles. If you wish you can use a cookie cutter like I did to spell something out!
- Drain apples in a sieve to remove extra liquid. Take out chilled tray and place 2 tablespoons of the filling on the centre. Lightly brush the edge of each circle with water. Top with a circle, and press gently around the edges to seal. Crimp with a fork. Transfer the pies to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425°F/218°C
- Brush the pies with an egg wash and a sprinkle of raw sugar. If you didn't use a cookie cutter to spell something out, use a sharp knife to cut steam vents.
- Bake for 19-22 minutes, until golden brown.
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