Spinach Hand Pies

5 from 1 vote

These hand pies are loosely inspired by those we used to buy at a Lebanese bakery in Minneapolis. To adjust it a bit more to my husband’s tastes, there is more filling than in the source material, as well as flavour additions like kalamata olives.

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Rising Time1 10

Total Time2 10

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Lebanese, Middle Eastern

Servings: Large Hand Pies

Calories: 522kcal

Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

2 Baking Sheets
Parchment Paper

Ingredients

Dough

1 cup Warm – not hot – water
4 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
2 tablespoon Granulated Sugar
5 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoon Salt
½ cup Sour Cream
3 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 Large Eggs beaten

Filling

4 blocks Frozen Chopped Spinach 40 oz total, defrosted
2 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Large Red Onions Finely chopped
5-6 Garlic Cloves Pressed or minced
4 oz Crumbled Feta
3 tablespoon Finely Chopped Kalamata Olives
2 tablespoon Finely Chopped Fresh Dill
1 ½ oz Pine Nuts Finely chopped
Zest of 1 Lemon
Pinch Nutmeg
¼ cup Plain Yogurt
Salt and pepper

Assembly

1 Large Eggs
1 tablespoon Water
Sesame seeds Optional

Instructions

Stir yeast and sugar into warm water, allow to stand for 10 minutes – it should get very bubbly.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl: combine flour and salt. Pour in yeast mixture, stir well to combine. Add sour cream, olive oil, and eggs; mix well to combine.
Dump dough out onto a floured surface, knead until soft and elastic, 5-10 minutes.
Alternatively, you can mix it in a stand mixer with a dough hook for 7 minutes or so.
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for one hour, or until doubled in size.
While dough is rising, make your filling:
Squeeze all of the water out of the spinach, set aside.
In a large pan, saute onion in olive oil until soft and translucent. Add spinach and garlic, stir well to combine, cook over medium heat until liquid is completely gone. Remove from heat.
Stir in feta, olives, dill, pine nuts, lemon zest, and nutmeg, stirring until well combined. Add yogurt, stir until completely incorporated. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
At this point, I like to smooth the filling out to an even thickness, and mark it out into even portions. We did 8, but you can do 10 if you want smaller pies.
Cover and chill until ready to use.
Once dough has doubled, punch it down, and divide it out. We divided the mixture into 8 equally sized balls, – but you can make them smaller by dividing into 10 equally sized pieces.
Preheat oven to 350 , line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Stretch each dough ball into a round, approximately 8″ diameter. Scoop filling into the center, and fold the edges in to make a triangle, as shown below:
Gently flatten each pie out to about 1″ thick.
Once you have all of your pies formed, set them on lined baking sheets to rise for another 10 minutes.
Whisk egg together with 1 tablespoon of water, brush over the tops and sides of each hand pie. Sprinkle with Sesame seeds, if desired.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve warm or room temperature, with tzatziki dip, if desired. Wrap any unused pies in plastic and chill until use.

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