There’s nothing like a good fried pie. Folks sometimes call them hand pies and sometimes they bake them instead of frying.
Granny made what she called fried pies when I was growing up. I was a grown women with kids of my own before I realized they weren’t fried they were baked.
When I asked her about it Granny said she never got the hang of frying her pies like her mother or Aunt Susie did so she started baking them. She laughed when I pointed out that we all still called them fried pies and said “Well whatever we call them they sure are good!”
I agree with Granny, they sure are good.
I use my biscuit recipe to make my pies.
Once I have the dough made I grab a small ball of it and roll it out. Granny takes great care in making her crusts. She uses a saucer to cut them all to the same size which makes her pies all neat and uniform. I always care more about taste than looks so I never take the time to cut my crust out I just eye ball them and hope for the best.
I normally fill mine with applesauce or apple preserves I put up but have also had great luck using peach preserves from my canning shelf.
Once the crusts are filled fold over to one side and crimp the edges to keep all the sweet goodness inside. Although I admit my favorite part of the pies is where the juice leaks.
I use a fork dipped in flour to seal the edges and then poke a few holes in the top to let out steam.
Bake at 450 degrees for about 15-20 minutes and you have a very tasty treat. The pies make a dandy dessert, snack, or breakfast.
Tipper
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We’ve always made ours with enriched pie dough (eggs n canned milk) and you gotta let it rest overnight. Fried pies are a delicacy and an ordeal…but one worth the patience. Best thing in the world to eat. My favorite is pineapple.
This post is about 3 hours too late. I just tried making some , with disastrous results.
Momma made her fried pies with dried apples. reconstituted and sweetened. Of course this required someone to dry apples in the summer. I am most sure she used a pie crust dough and she did fry them. She also made them with store bought dried peaches or apricots. Sometimes if she happened to have some when she got in a pie frying mood, she would make a few with bananas. I am not sure if she mashed the bananas or just sliced them. She always cut out the dough using a dinner plate for her pattern, so only two at a time would fit in a good sized skillet.
Also… I fry mine in the air fryer.. very little oil and all the great fried tastiness!
Now I’m in the mood to make some fried pies. My mouth is watering! What a treat for me and my hubby. He will be so pleased! LOL! And I will too.
Please! Get Sherry’s low carb biscuit recipe! I want it!
Fried pies and parched corn were two of myfavorites when I was a youngster.
Tipper–Although the traditional mountain filling has always been apples or peaches (and in my family it was dried apples or peaches which had been reconstituted), there are other fillings which work perfectly well. Among them are dried apricots, pear butter, candy roaster butter, pumpkin butter, and even prunes).
I have always like them almost as well cold as hot, with the only real difference being that cold ones did lend themselves to being adorned with a big pat of butter. Momma and Grandma always fried them using lard, but your approach is probably a bit healthier although when it comes to matters of taste sometimes you’ve got to ignore the food Nazis.
Jim Casada
Tipper my sister law Clara made a lot of fried apple pies for home coming dinner. My brother Bo you could never fill him on fried apples. He slipped around and told the kids that Aunt Clara’s pie had kerosene in them so they would let the pies along (more for him) He was a mess.
That’s it I am making hand pies tomorrow .. its been on my mind for a week. Is the vest you are wearing in your profile picture a handknit? Do you know the name of the pattern, by chance? Thanks
I have made these before. I .made peach and apple. I love them. Hadn’t made any in awhile.
Ummm fried pies are my very favorite and now I am on a very low carb diet. Shoot! But I have a new recipe is that absolutely tastes like real biscuits. So now I have to find some low carb filling!
the secret to GOOD fried apple pies is : use DRIED apples in the pies for best taste and consistantcy need for frying the pies.
Peach is my favorite! Made from home dried peaches.
Mama used to make us little pies for breakfast–some filled with butter and sugar & some with cocoa added. They were baked and were delicious! I don’t remember her ever making pie crust so I imagine they were from biscuit dough.
In my memory, there was usually a big plate of fried apple pies at Granny’s house. They were stacked with two going one way and the next two going the other way. I seldom make pies but when I do, I automatically stack them the same way!
I made 5 fried pies last week with leftover pie crust. I wondered if they could be baked. I glazed mine with a very thin coat of powdered sugar icing.
They were delicious!
Stay well.
Peach Fried pies that my Mother fried up in an old cast iron skillet come to my mind and signal my taste buds. Hers were always Peach. I have made them and they are to me the best dessert in the WORLD! One time I was up near Memphis, TN., for a weekend sale at Ripley. I saw a sign for Fried Pies and made a bee line for that stand but they only had Apple. I bought one but it no way tasted as good to me as my Mother’s Peach Fried Pies. I think that just goes to show how our taste buds are aligned, apparently, mine prefer Peach. I have never baked mine but I might try it.
This brings back so many good memories used to make fried pies for two brothers . I would keep them in freezer. My brother came up from Florida and he had summer home out across the field from us. He went to the freezer but I didn’t have any. He said did no fried pies , it was ten o’clock and he and his wife still visiting us. I said let’s go to the kitchen and make us some so I got a can of can applesauce from the can house and we all rolled dough out and made us a passel o fried apple pies . Boy they were good
I love these! We have a little farm store up here that sells them fresh made. It’s a fall treat I look forward to every year.
We’ll have to try this recipe.
I used to find little fried pies in my lunch poke when I was in elementary school. I didn’t like them! They were soggy and cold! This was in the late 1950s. It would by another 20 years before the affordable microwave came along. When the weather cooperated I could set my lunch poke on a sunny window sill to warm it a bit but ofttimes the sun would be in the teacher’s eyes, she’d lower the blinds and there goes my dinner.
Now on the other hand, fried pies at home were a whole nother animal. Filled with apple or peach butter and fried to a crispy gold in hand milked, home made, hand churned, real sour milk butter.
Like you I likes the leaky ones. The oozing filling caramelized in its bubbly buttery bath and turned to candy. Double Yum!
Tipper,
I don’t know for sure if I like them home baked pies or not, but Chocolate is my Favorite. I’ve tried those home-baked pies from Ingles, but they’re not much good, especially those with sugar on top, like McDonalds. Neither kind has ever seen a Cherry or anything, they’re just thick, immitation juice. …Ken
I’ve made those kind of pies, both baked and fried. Frying them involves time, mess, and more butter. Baked are easier, cleaner and less fat. Both are very good
And Sue W. welcome to, what we call, Gods country!
I have been making these for years. Since I am not canning anymore I just use cans of pie fillings. They are so quick and easy. I have even used frozen pie crust. I have fried and baked but baked is easier and less mess.. Hope everyone is safe
I’m getting my freezer cleaned out before I start freezing my fruit and vegetables this year. This recipe will be perfect for the few bags of June Apples I have left. I have been finding every excuse in the books to make desserts during this time of shelter in place. Not only are we staying home but we are having to stay indoors as our gloomy, rainy April comes to an end. My daughter asked me if she could get anything for me at Wal-Mart on her pick-up order. I told her if they would deliver non-food items I needed some bigger clothes and a box of hair dye. I knew that was over her head when she told me to call the store and ask so she could add them to her order.
O my goodness I’m a self proclaimed fried pie contassur, and those look delicious, my wife and I was just discussing this, she makes great fried pies she says thats why I married her, if I had of been smart and opened an early morning fried pie and cup of coffee drive thru, I’d be a rich man by now.
There is another thing Cracker Barrel should have and doesn’t – fried pies. The two places I know of to get them anywhere near here are both farm markets. To me, fried pies just say ‘Appalachian’, though I really can’t believe the rest of the world has overlooked them.
I remember being at a church ‘dinner on the grounds’ when I was a boy. There was a classmate of my brother’s there and we three ended up in the car eating together. The boy I didn’t know had a fried pie but he suddenly threw it down through the woods untasted. I was shocked and thought that was a terrible thing, not just to waste food but to waste a fried pie of all things!
In my opinion, everybody should have had at least the opportunity to have had a fried pie in their lifetime. Otherwise they will have been deprived.
My wife makes fried apple pies out of biscuit dough but uses fresh apples, sliced and cooked in the microwave. She loves cinnamon so they get a big helping of that. She fries her in an iron skillet but we will try baking them and cut down on all those extra calories from grease.
I was looking for a recipe like this. I have a can of blueberry pie filling that Ive been wondering what to do with, just taking up space in the cupboard. I will give this try.
Have you tried making some using pear preserves? My mother made some they were delicious.
My Great-Aunt Mamie (my paternal grandfather’s sister) made THE BEST apricot hand pies. Sadly, she never shared her recipe and though many of us in the family have tried to duplicate them, we have not been successful.
Tipper, hubby and I have recently moved “just down the road from you!” We are down Blue Ridge way and loving the cool mountain mornings. This Florida girl was never friends with the heat and it seemed the older I got, the worse that friendship was. So we made finally the move about 3 weeks ago and couldn’t be happier!
Those pies sound delicious and since they’re BAKED as opposed to fried, THEYRE probably easier for digestion over fried. Your pies look just as good as I recollect. I’ve had those pies with all types of fruits and I’m still an apple fan above all! I must try your granny’s twist on these Hillbilly taste delights! Thanks again, Tipper!