Hand pies.  Mini-calzones.  Hot pockets.  Turnovers.  At our house, Sophie likes to call them Flyin' Dinner Rolls.  In some parts of the country it's called a Pasty.  Not to be confused with PASTIES, that's a whole different thing, having nothing to do with dinner.

In the same way that cupcakes were the big food trend over the past few years, right now it seems that everywhere I turn "hand pies" are all the rage.  Some are savory, some are sweet, some shaped like rectangles, others like half-moons.  And much like the cupcake, they are the new single-serving and highly portable food.  Unlike the cupcake, you can take leftovers from your fridge, put them inside and turn it into a meal.  That method would make a pretty gross cupcake.

We tried hand pies this week and loved them.  They were super easy to make, tasted great, and everyone enjoyed them.  We used a recipe that featured frozen dinner roll bread dough for the crust part.  I set them out around lunch time to rise, and by dinner time, they were ready to roll out.  Sophie took care of the rolling.


Next, we added a few dollops of filling to the center of the dough.  We used chopped black olives, Italian sausage, marinara sauce, non-dairy sour cream.


I folded each one over, twisted the edges to seal.  Some people use a fork to press the seam, I like the twisty edge because it bakes up like a breadstick and is good for dipping.


Twenty minutes later, we were sitting down to dinner that can be eaten without utensils, which is a good thing because my kids seem to have stopped wanting to use them.


Hand pies could take any filling combination, as long as it is pre-cooked and not too liquidy.  I think this would be an excellent way to use up leftover vegetables, deli meat, or pretty much any odds-and-ends that need to be turned into a new meal in order to be consumed.  As an added bonus, Rhodes frozen dinner roll bread dough is non-dairy, and extra dairy isn't needed to make this a flavorful dinner.  We'll definitely make this again.  Probably a lot.

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