Peach and Thyme Hand Pies

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Ok so I just checked, and I have 21 pie recipes on this blog. TWENTY ONE. There's like, 150 something recipes total, 21 of which are pies. Whoopsies. And it's probably only going to get worse sorry - I promise not to double up on you, but there's just something that really gets me going about spending an afternoon pottering round in the kitchen rolling out dough, or working out a lattice, or cutting out shapes. Pie is the best way (in my opinion) to quickly turn an in season fruit into a beautiful dessert, while still maintaining the integrity of the fruit itself - adding starch and sugar, and wrapping it up in a flaky pie crust is only going to make something more delicious. You're not tucking it into a cake or hiding it in a muffin - pie really lets you hero what you are working with. Plus I will never get sick of pretty intricate lattices. So as long as you guys are ok with it, there's going to be more pie. Actually, even if you're not ok with it, it's going to be here anyway. 

I can't help myself when peaches are in season, and so when I found myself, yet again, with a good few kilos of super ripe peaches, some pie dough in the freezer, and a brand spanking new thyme plant / balcony garden, I really didn't have a choice but to make pie. I love a regular sized pie, but I love pie dough more, so hand pies are one of my favourite ways to really exploit the filling to crust ratio. The addition of thyme was a great move on my part - the thyme is super delicate, and gives the filling a little something extra. 

I kept these ones super simple - no pastry stamps in sight, just two circles of dough, filled, and pressed together. Crazy easy, and can be done well ahead of time - they actually freeze super well so if you wanted to make a bunch, you could freeze them then bake on demand. 

A few wee tips:

• I peeled my peaches by boiling a large pot of water, and preparing an ice bath. I then scored a cross in the bottom of each peach, placed them in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then transferred immediately to the ice bath. The skins should slide right off. If you want to keep the skins on, that works too!
• I have also made these with frozen peaches - I just thawed them and then chopped them up and it worked just fine!
• If you can, make your pie dough overnight. I actually took this dough from the freezer and thawed it overnight before using.
• I like to layer up the circles as I cut them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper - to make a second layer, make sure you place another piece of baking paper between the circles.
• Work with one hand pie at a time - so fill it and seal it up, and then move onto the next one rather than making a production line. That way you reduce your chances of the juice going everywhere.
• If your peaches are super ripe or crazy juicy you may need to add a little more starch - add an extra tablespoon or so and see how you go if it is looking kinda soupy.
• I have a little tip to help make the dough easier to work with - it is optional but especially helpful for wee pies like this where you want the dough to be flaky but still really easy to work with. I make the dough, rest it in the fridge wrapped for about an hour, then remove it and roll it out into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. I then give it a letter fold (as you would a letter), roll out to a rectangle, letter fold again, then roll out once more and shape into a rectangle. I then re-wrap it, and leave it to rest overnight. This makes the dough more homogenous without compromising the flaky texture that you want in the pie dough, and it makes it a total dream to work with, and shaping it into a rectangle gives you a head start when you go to roll out your dough for assembling the pies.

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