Caramelized Popped Corn Hand Pies

I love pie...so much that sometimes I wish it was a little more accessible and snacky. This instructable explains how to make a hand-held, ooey-gooey pie with a wonderfully chewy grain-based filling that can be whipped up from pantry staples most people have on hand all the time.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 cups of popped grain (corn, sorghum, rice, etc.), chopped into puffed rice-sized pieces
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)
• 1/4 cup cold water

Kitchen tools:

• small mixing bowl
• measuring cups and measuring spoons
• butter knives (or dough cutting tool)
• rubber spatula
• rolling pin
• small saucepan
• baking sheet

I always use my grandma's pastry recipe because it is simple and makes up quickly, but feel free to swap this out for your favorite single-crust recipe if you prefer.

Put 1 cup of flour into a small mixing bowl and mix in 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Then, cut 1/2 cup of shortening in until the mixture is crumbly. Finally, add 1/4 cup of cold water and mix until the dough forms a ball.

Press flat on a floured surface and set aside.

You have a few options for what grain you want to use for these hand pies. Really anything that is puffed/popped should work, but depending on what you select it will change the flavor slightly. Here are three of the my favorite options to choose from:

Option #1: Puffed rice

This is definitely the simplest option, but it comes with the tradeoff of being the least flavorful of these three grains. It still gives you the texture we are looking for in the filling, though, and you can simply use toasted rice cereal for this option.

Option #2: Popped corn

This is my favorite option - both because of the flavor and ease of preparing. The instructions in this instructable will use this whole grain, but feel free to swap out any of these options in your pies.

Option #3: Popped sorghum

This offers the strongest grain flavor and acts a lot like popcorn, but with a nuttier flavor. If you've never worked with sorghum before, HERE is an instructable that explains how to pop your own.

I am fairly addicted to my silicone air popper, and if you don't have one yet - I recommend picking one up because they are so darn convenient. But, if you have another way you like to pop corn, go for it. :)

Pour 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt into your popper and place the lid on. Microwave until you hear about 2-3 seconds between each pop sound (around 2 minutes). This will give you more than enough popcorn, so you should have plenty to snack on while you are finishing up the recipe. Nibble away, but make sure to reserve 2 cups of popped corn for the pies.

Chop the 2 cups of popped corn into small pieces (about the size of puffed rice) and set aside.

Add the filling ingredients (brown sugar, butter, and milk) to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring consistently. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken (5-10 minutes). This step is pretty critical to ensure your filling isn't so runny that it will seep out of your pies as you bake them...which I learned the hard way the first time I made these. Make sure you don't remove your mixture from the heat until you can really feel it become thicker. This will likely happen after a few minutes of a frothy, bubbly, boil.

Remove the mixture from heat and set aside for 5 minutes (to cool a bit) before mixing in the popped corn. Set the completed mixture aside.

The next step is where you get to cut out the crusts for the pies. You can use any shape or cookie cutter for this as long as they are fairly basic shapes (without thin sections) and you cut them in pairs (so you have a matching top and bottom). For reference, the picture shows two different star-shaped cookie cutters. The blue, chunkier star is a much better choice for this so the filling has more space to spread into, whereas the green cutter would end up with unfilled, doughy points.

No cookie cutter? No problem. Feel free to cut shapes by hand with a knife or use an upside-down cup to make quick matching circles.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough until it's about pie-thickness (no less than 1/8" thick). Cut matching shapes as close together as possible and move the cut pieces to the side. Gather up the remaining dough and reroll so you can cut a few more shapes with the scraps.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Lay one piece of a matching set of crusts down on a cookie sheet. Put a small mound of filling on the crust and cover it with the matching top. Press the edges together gently with your fingers and then crimp the edges with the teeth of a fork. Repeat for each crust pair. (If you go with a star shape, make sure to close up the inside corners tightly. It's unlikely your pies won't leak at all, but the goal is to minimize it with good sealing in this step, and that area can be particularly sneaky about sealing well.)

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust starts to brown slightly, as shown. Remove from the oven and transfer to a plate to cool before enjoying.

These are super tasty when they are warm, but are just as crunchy and sweet when cooled. Enjoy!