Heart Shaped Apple Hand Pies

Is it just me or have the apples in the grocery stores looked pitiful lately? Even at my local farmers market and Wegman's, the two places I can always expect to find good produce, I have been less than impressed. Maybe it's just a bad late season for apples? I dunno.

But then I received these flawless (I'm not even joking, they are flawless) apples from Envy Apples as part of the #freshTastyValentines. They are so pretty I had a hard time convincing myself to eat them!

Envy Apples were born in New Zealand using natural plant-breeding methods by cross-pollinating Braeburn apples with Royal Gala apples. They have since planted trees in Washington state and Chile.

Envy apples has the right motto - "When you're this good, they call you envy." With that in mind, I got over thinking they were too pretty to eat and came up with a recipe that only used one apple so I could take the other two for lunch.

Heart Shaped Apple Hand Pies
Source: Cookaholic Wife creation
Servings: 10-12
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Ingredients:

• 1 box (2 rolls) refrigerated pie dough, thawed
• 1 medium Gala or Braeburn apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped (Envy apples, if you can find them)
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. cardamom
• ¼ tsp. salt
• egg wash
• sanding sugar/sugar in the raw/turbinado sugar
• * heart shaped cookie cutter

Directions:
1. Roll out the pie dough onto a lightly floured surface and use the heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out an even amount of hearts. (The quantity of hearts will depend on the size of the cookie cutter.)
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.v
3. Combine the apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a medium bowl and toss to coat.
4. Place ½ tablespoon of apple filling onto the center of each dough heart. Brush a little bit of egg wash around the edges of the bottom dough heart.
5. Place the other dough heart on top and crimp edges with a fork. Poke the top with a fork 2-3 times to allow steam to escape. Repeat with remaining dough hearts.
6. Brush the egg wash on top of each heart shaped hand pie and then sprinkle with sugar.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

You can't tell me these aren't adorable!

This recipe is shared with you as part of #FreshTastyValentines, a group of 22 amazing food bloggers, led by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla, who are posting recipes that we hope will inspire you to make some healthy valentine treats for your loved ones.

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Disclaimer: I received Envy Apples as part of participating in #FreshTastyValentines in exchange for sharing a recipe. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received.