Cherry Amaretto Hand Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

NOTE: It’s best to make the pie dough and filling the day before you plan to bake your hand pies.

All-Butter Pie Dough:

1. Mix vinegar and water together, then add a few ice cubes. Store in fridge until ready to use.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.
3. Add cold, cubed butter to flour mixture, tossing around gently to coat. With pastry blender in one hand, cut in butter while rotating bowl in quarter-turns with your other hand. Stop once the pieces of butter are roughly pea sized. (You’ll want to have some that are a little bigger and some that are a little smaller to maximize the delicious flakiness!)
4. Add ice cold water-vinegar mixture one tablespoon at a time, quickly mixing together with your hands. Continue adding water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. The goal is for the dough to hold together when squeezed into a ball, but with a few dry bits still left in the bowl.
   NOTE: Do NOT add all of the water at once. You don’t want the dough to get so wet that it becomes sticky. You should only be adding 4–5 tablespoons of water total.
5. Wrap dough in cling film, then press into a patty shape about 1-inch thick. Place wrapped dough in fridge overnight. (You could refrigerate for only two hours if you’re in a hurry, but overnight is recommended.)

Cherry Amaretto Filling:

1. Now let’s make the filling! Cut any large cherries in half. In a wide, shallow container, combine frozen cherries, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Gently toss cherries to coat in other ingredients.
2. Cover and let cherries macerate until defrosted, stirring the mixture every so often. We macerated our cherries for almost 3 hours, but your timing may vary based on the temperature of your kitchen. ^[4]
3. Once cherries are ready, transfer mixture to a non-reactive pot. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until mixture thickens and reaches 220–225°F, roughly 10 minutes. ^[5]
   NOTE: The filling will continue to thicken up as it cools, so it will appear looser than the finished product at this stage.
4. Remove pot from heat and stir in amaretto flavouring. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover and store in fridge until you’re ready to assemble your hand pies.
5. Now go enjoy the rest of your day, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Hand Pie Assembly & Baking:

1. Hi again! Let’s get rolling! Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Flour your work surface and rolling pin. Retrieve dough patty from fridge, place on your well-floured surface, sprinkle top with a little bit of flour, then roll pie dough out to ¹/₈-inch thickness.
3. Using a 3-inch-ish circular cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out dough discs. (Our cutter was 2.75".) Transfer the dough circles to prepared baking sheet. ^[6]
4. Fold and layer excess dough scraps. Wrap in cling film, then press into a patty shape. Place wrapped dough scrap patty in fridge.
5. Now turn your attention back to the dough discs on the baking sheet. Brush half of them with egg wash. Using a paring knife, cut a wee X in the centre of the other half of dough discs.
6. Place 2 teaspoons of cherry filling in the centre of the egg washed discs.
7. Place X-ed dough discs on top of filling-topped discs.
8. Gently press edges together to seal, then crimp edges with a fork.
9. Put baking sheet in fridge for 30–60 minutes. Heat oven to 350°F.
10. Repeat the hand pie making process with remaining dough and cherry filling.
11. Once first batch of hand pies has rested and chilled for 30–60 minutes, retrieve baking sheet from fridge. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Also sprinkle with a tiny bit of flaky sea salt, if desired.
12. Bake for 20–25 minutes, rotating your baking sheet halfway through. Hand pies will be golden brown.
13. Allow hand pies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
14. Repeat egg washing, sugar sprinkling, and baking process with remaining batch of hand pies.
15. Allow hand pies to cool completely.

Ice Cream Sandwich Assembly:

1. While your hand pies are cooling, line an 8 x 8 pan with a parchment paper sling. Take ice cream out of freezer and allow to soften a smidge.
2. Scoop slightly softened ice cream into prepared pan, smoothing top with an offset spatula or back of a spoon. How much ice cream you use is your choice. Do you want a ¼" or ½" layer of ice cream between your hand pies? More? Less? Totally up to you!
3. Place ice cream pan in freezer and allow to freeze solid.
4. Once your hand pies are totally cool and your ice cream slab is frozen, let’s make sammiches!
5. Retrieve ice cream pan from freezer. Run a knife around edges, then pull up on parchment to remove ice cream slab.
6. Using a circular biscuit or cookie cutter, cut pucks from your frozen ice cream slab. ^[7] Allow to sit at room temperature for just a couple minutes to oh-so-slightly soften.
7. Place one ice cream puck between two hand pies, then gently squeeze together to form your ice cream sandwich.
   NOTE: Make sure the tops of the hand pies are both facing upwards before smushing; otherwise you could end up wearing some of the cherry filling.
8. Repeat with remaining hand pies and ice cream. Enjoy immediately!