I am throwing my hat into the Thanksgiving Day leftovers dilemma. Although I must confess that we do not typically have any issues with eating up our Thanksgiving leftovers.
We don’t tend to have a whole lot left (a huge crew comes to clean us out on Turkey Day,) and what is left is greedily gobbled up for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the day or two that follow. By the time it occurs to me to form the leftovers into a new creation, they’re already eaten!
Even still, I cannot deny the appeal of packing in all those holiday staples into one little hand-held treat.
What staples, you ask? Why, turkey of course. And mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberry.
All folded up in a flaky crust with a salty top. Fits in your hand!
So you can eat it all up.
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter, cold
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, very cold or from freezer
- Ice water
- 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
- 1/3 cup leftover turkey or chicken gravy
- 8 ounces leftover cooked turkey, light or dark meat as you prefer
- 1/2 cup leftover stuffing
- 1/3 cup cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly
- 1 egg
- Flake salt, such as Maldons
Instructions
In a large bowl whisk together the flour and salt. Slice the cold butter into small cubes, add them to the bowl and toss them with the flour. Slice the very cold shortening into small cubes and add these to the bowl as well, tossing them into the flour.
Add 4 tablespoons of the ice water to the flour mixture and use a large spoon to combine. Add more ice water in 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring after every addition, until the dough is moist enough to hold together when you squeeze some in your hand.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it together 4 or 5 times, just until it becomes smooth. Divide the dough in half, flatten them into disks and wrap them in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or ideally overnight.
Have all of the filling ingredients ready on your work table, and lightly flour the area where you will roll out the dough. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and have it ready in the fridge.
Divide each chilled dough disks into 8 equal portions - whatever dough you're not immediately using should wait in the fridge. Roll out one portion into a 6" circle. (Add more flour underneath if need be to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface.) Keeping all of the filling ingredients in the center and leaving the edges clear, begin layering in the filing: place 2 tablespoons of the mashed potato onto the circle, and flatten the potato out. Top this with 2 teaspoons of the gravy. Place 1 ounce of turkey over the top of the gravy and potatoes. Add 1 tablespoon of stuffing on top of the turkey. Finally, place 2 teaspoons of cranberry sauce on top of this.
Roll out another dough portion into a 6" circle and drape this over the filling. Pinch the edges of the top and bottom crusts together and roll them under once, twice if there is enough dough to do so. Do this all the way around. Crimp edge firmly with floured fingers. Place the hand pie on the prepared sheet in the fridge. Repeat these steps with the rest of the dough portions and filling to create a total of 8 hand pies. Refrigerate the pies for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Move a rack in the oven to the position just below the middle.
Remove the baking sheet with the pies from the fridge. Crimp/pinch down the edges one more time with your fingers or the tines of a fork. Cut a couple small slits in the tops of the pies to vent. In a small dish beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the pie tops with the beaten egg and then sprinkle them with flake salt. Bake the pies for 30 minutes until they are golden brown all over.
Serve the pies immediately or allow them to cool a bit and then store them covered in the fridge. The pies can be reheated in a 300° F oven for 30 minutes.
Recipe Notes
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