Gluten Free Mini Nutella Hand Pies

Recipe

If you're after an easy and delicious treat, these little morsels are for you! Crisp, flaky pastry enclosing gooey Nutella, these Gluten Free Mini Nutella Hand Pies are dangerously easy to make and even easier to eat!

In my house, we frequently find ourselves needing a little something sweet after a meal. Having recently ended up with a block of my Epic Gluten Free Rough Puff Pastry in the fridge I decided that the natural thing to do would be to stuff it with Nutella and bake it with sugar on top until golden, crisp, flaky and absolutely delicious.

How to Make Gluten Free Mini Nutella Hand Pies

1. Rolling out the Epic Rough Puff Pastry: Step number one is to roll out the pastry! I like to keep it at around 4mm thick, this gives the pastry an amazing puff when it goes in the oven. Keep lifting and moving your pastry and dusting with a little more flour while you roll it out to prevent teh pastry from sticking. If it ever starts to feel really soft and precarious just lift it onto a tray and put it back in the fridge for 15 - 20 minutes.

2. Cutting: with Valentines Day in just two days I used a 5.5cm heart-shaped cutter to cut my hand pies, but you can use any shape a similar size. If you do use a larger cutter you may need to cook the hand pies for longer. I chose not to re-roll the offcuts for my hand pies, but if you want more you can absolutely re-roll. The pastry will just have a bit less puff.

3. Assembling: Assembly is really just a case of putting a dollop of Nutella on the base of the pastry, brushing a little egg wash around the edge, and then placing the top on, pressing with your fingertips and then crimping with a fork to seal. However, the process can get a little bit fiddly, especially if you use heart shapes like me. My best advice is to try to keep you Nutella away from the edges of the pastry to keep it neat, and to start pressing the pastry down in the narrowest parts of the shape first (i.e. if you use a heart shaped cutter, you'll need to start pressing around the top where the heart dips down, then around the point of the base and up the sides).

4. Chilling: doing anything with pastry, gluten or no gluten, is always an exercise in patience. When in doubt, chill the pastry. I always chill my pastries for at least 30 minutes before baking them. This helps the butter to stay inside the pastry and puff up into incredible layers in the oven!

5. Baking: as I've said before, my Epic Rough Puff Pastry benefits from a slightly longer bake than you might be used to. A 25 to 30 minute bake ensures the pastry is crisp all the way through, and that it has the most wonderful caramelised flavour.

6. Cooling: yes, I'm sorry, you do need to let them cool a bit before you eat them, but only so you don't burn yourself! If you want to eat them warm give them 10 to 20 minutes to cool, otherwise cool them completely to enjoy later.

7. Storage: it won't take you long to polish these off, but if you do have leftovers they keep really well in an airtight container at room temperature. You can enjoy them straight from the container or pop them back into a 180ºC fan oven for 5 to 10 minutes to warm up.

Ingredient Substitutions for Gluten Free Mini Nutella Hand Pies

If you can't eat or don't like any of the ingredients I've used in this recipe, here are a few suggestions for substitutions:

1. Nutella: I've never met anyone who doesn't like Nutella, but if you can't have nuts feel free to use whatever spread you want for the filling here. You could even play around with savoury fillings!

2. Egg: any kind of milk makes a great alternative for the egg, both for sealing the pastry and glazing the top.

3. Butter: I've never tried this particular pastry with a dairy-free butter alternative, but I do have a dairy free puff pastry in the works - watch this space!

Whatever you fill them with, and whatever shape you make them, I really hope you give this lovely little recipe a go - you deserve to have delicious treats in your life!