Chopped leftover turkey can be packaged up with any number of ingredients – leftover veggies and gravy work particularly well – to make pies kids can eat out of hand, or you can tuck into their lunch box. Alternatively, use cooled turkey tetrazzini to stuff your hand pies.
Ingredients:
Pastry:
1 1/3 cups (310 ml) all-purpose flour1 tsp (5 ml) sugar
1/4 tsp (1 ml) salt
1/2 cup (125 ml) butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup (60 ml) ice-cold water
Filling:
1 cup (250 ml) chopped roasted turkey
1 cup (250 ml) chopped leftover veggies,
such as carrots, Brussels sprouts and peas
1/4–1/2 cup (60–125 ml) leftover gravy
1/4 cup (60 ml) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
cranberry sauce (optional)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and use a fork, pastry blender, wire whisk or the “pulse” motion of the food processor to blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with lumps of fat no bigger than a pea.
Drizzle the water overtop and stir just until the dough comes together, adding a little more water if you need it. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and chill it for at least half an hour.
To make the filling, stir together the turkey, veggies, gravy and Parmesan cheese. On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out ¼-inch thick. Cut into equal squares or rounds with a cutter; spoon filling onto half the squares or all the rounds, leaving half an inch around the border. If you like, add a small dollop of cranberry sauce.
Fold rounds over, peroghy-style, or cover squares with a second piece of pastry. Press with your fingers or a fork to seal, poke a hole in the top with the tip of a knife, and brush with cream.
Bake on a parchment-lined sheet for 20 minutes or until golden.
Makes 8 to 12 hand pies.
Per pie (10 small pies):
163 calories, 9.1 g fat (6 g saturated fat, 2.6 g monounsaturated fat, 0.6 g polyunsaturated fat), 31 mg cholesterol, 14 g carbohydrate, 4.5 g protein, 0.5 g fibre.
Originally published in ParentsCanada magazine, December 2013.
