It’s back to school time! Which reminds me of being a kid – anxiously shopping for school supplies and trying to con my mom into buying the lunchables, fruit snacks and pudding cups that would DEFINITELY make me the cool kid (not so, Jo…not so).
While I don’t personally have any small humans to send out into the scholastic world I do have a good friend who recently went back to school for their PhD and requested something grab and go for those busy days of lectures, studying, and the life we live in between.
I wanted to give them something handy, delicious, but also a little more grown up than say PB & J. I thought about my favorite sandwiches (of which there are many) and inspiration struck – a reuben!
These reuben hand pies are meaty, cheesy, downright savory, and a little bit unique. Just think of all that deli sandwich goodness safely contained within a buttery, flaky, pastry shell. Drooling yet? Oh they also come with a dipping sauce, because I don’t think I’d be living my life right without one.
Happy learning!
Reuben Hand Pies
God I love a hand pie. These are stuffed full of corned beef, swiss cheese, and sauerkraut – duh it’s a reuben. And of course my life would be an empty pit if there wasn’t some sort of dipping sauce so I threw a little thousand island action in there as well. As for the labor involved, you CAN TOTALLY make your own pie dough (recipe included) which takes about 6 minutes of actual labor, but there is resting time and rolling time and the whole mess, so it’s ok if you want to the go the store-bought route. Just make NOT to get the kind that comes pre-pressed into a pie tin. You can also do this with thinly rolled pizza dough – it’s grand.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 35 Minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 5 Pies 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 disc of pie dough, recipe below (or two sheets of store-bought)
10 thin slices swiss cheese
½ lb corned beef, sliced thin (I used about 10 slices all told)
⅔ C sauerkraut (canned is fine), drained thoroughly
1 egg, beaten
Coarse salt & ground black pepper
1 T sesame seeds (optional)
½ C thousand island dressing plus more for dipping, recipe below
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400° F.
On a lightly floured surface roll dough out to an ⅛ inch thickness and cut out 2 circles, 6-7 inches in diameter (I used a plate as a template and cut with a knife – this doesn’t have to be exact). Place dough circles on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate while you re-roll the scraps. You should get five circles in total with a couple scraps leftover.
To assemble take one dough circle and spread 1 tablespoon of 1000 island dressing on half of the dough, leaving a ½ inch border.
Place a slice of cheese, folded in half, on top of the dressing. Layer on 2 slices of corned beef and 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut. Top with another slice of cheese.
Fold the dough over the filling and crimp with a fork to seal the pie.
Pop the pies back onto the parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for ten minutes.
Lightly brush the pies with the beaten egg, cut a few slits in the top of each pie with a sharp knife, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and sesame seeds.
Bake on the middle rack for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Let cool for 10 minutes and serve with 1000 island dressing.
Notes
You can bake these from a rock-hard frozen state, but I’d lower the oven temp to 350° and bake for more like 45-50 minutes.
Keywords: reuben, savory pie, hand pie, homemade hot pocket
Basic Pie Dough
I did a video of this on my IG stories recently. You can find it in my highlights if you’re interested in that sort of thing. The takeaway should be that it’s not hard or scary – perhaps a little messy though.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes (plus chilling time)
- Cook Time: 0 Minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 disc (enough for 1 double crust pie) 1x
- Category: Baking
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 ¾ C flour
½ tsp salt
1 T granulated sugar
1 stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
7 T ice water
Instructions
In a large bowl mix together flour, salt, and sugar.
Add chilled butter and toss to coat in flour.
Pick up chunks of butter and rub them between your thumbs and fingertips to break the butter into smaller pieces and distribute them into the flour. Continue until the smallest chunks of butter are about the size of peas. You will also have some pretty large chunks too.
Add six tablespoons of water and mix with your hands until you have a rough dough. I like to do this in the bowl, squeezing the dough together with my hand. It will mostly come together into a ball, but there will still be a few dry bits. Sometimes if it’s very dry I add the last of the water, sometimes I don’t. It depends on the day, humidity, patience, etc.
Pat your dough ball into a round(ish) disk and wrap tightly in plastic. Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to a day – longer than that and I’d suggest chucking it in the freezer.
Remove your dough from the fridge and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
Keywords: basic pie dough, pie dough recipe
1000 Island Dressing
This dressing also pulls double duty on my BLT Wedge Salad. It’s sweet, zingy, and just a little bit spicy.
- Prep Time: 5 Minutes
- Cook Time: 0 Minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 Cup 1x
- Category: dressing
Ingredients
¼ yellow or white onion, grated
½ C plain yogurt
½ C mayonnaise
2 T ketchup
2 small dill pickles, chopped fine (about ¼ cup)
2 T pickle brine
1 tsp honey
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
Stir together all ingredients until thoroughly combined.
Keywords: dressing, dip, sauce, easy, fast
