Smoked Salmon Hand Pies with Cream Cheese Filling and Everything Bagel Seasoning. Easy flaky pie dough is filled with a Cold smoked salmon and cream cheese mixture, and baked until perfectly golden and flaky.

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Hand Pies with Everything Bagel Seasoning. Easy flaky pie dough is filled with a smoked salmon and cream cheese mixture, and baked until perfectly golden and flaky.

Smoked Salmon Hand Pies

Hi! Happy Tuesday! I hope you are keeping well - I am so excited to share this wee recipe with you we are currently obsessed with - Smoked salmon and cream cheese hand pies with everything seasoning! I’ve made these a few times in the last week or so and they are so, so good. I made a pureed cream cheese and smoked salmon filling, and tucked it inside some super, super flaky pie dough (more on that later), then covered them with everything seasoning and baked them until they were beautifully golden brown and so, so flaky!

I have been partnering with Taste of New Zealand of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise for a while now, sharing a recipe focussed on a different New Zealand ingredient each month. I love my monthly New Zealand posts so much - I am so proud of where I come from, and I am so excited that I get to share a little bit of home with you each month. New Zealand isn’t very big but it cranks out some incredible products - including the best smoked salmon I’ve ever had. I grew up eating Regal smoked salmon (we get it at the supermarket back home), and it wasn’t until I moved here that I realised just how good it is, and I am so, so excited that it is now available in the states! The Cold Smoked Salmon is packed up and sealed tightly so it keeps for a really long time, so it’s perfect to have stashed in your fridge for when you need a wee smoked salmon fix. We got a bunch of different flavours to try (there’s a dill cured and also a pastrami cured (!!), but I always end up back with my old faithful, manuka smoked. Manuka is a tree native to New Zealand - you’ve probably heard of Manuka honey, but the wood produces a super rich smoked flavour too, so it has been used for a long time in the smoking of meat and fish.

Ways to use Cold Smoked Salmon

One of my favourite smoked salmon preparations is in a smoked salmon dip, and I wanted to take that flavour profile and pop it in some flaky pastry to make hand pies, so I blended a packet of salmon with some cream cheese, chives, lemon, and salt and pepper, and used it as the filling for these savoury hand pies. The filling is super simple to make (it takes about 3 minutes), and I made my own pie dough, but these would work perfectly with a store bought puff pastry too if that’s not your jam. These can be made ahead and stored in the freezer, or you can make a bunch and keep some on hand for a quick dinner or easy lunch - just whack one in the oven and you’re good to go! I hope you give these a try - there’s nothing quite like flaky pastry hot out of the oven.

I made a super, super flaky pastry to go with these - imagine if pie dough and rough puff had a baby, this would be it. It uses the same ratios and method as my pie dough, but utilises a technique my friend Erin taught me - you laminate the dough a few times after you have mixed it, which creates amazing layers within the pastry. Its super easy, and so, so good.

What is Everything Bagel Seasoning?

Everything But The Bagel Seasoning is a classic bagel topping and is made up of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic, dried onion and salt. It has become more popular recently used as a topping for baking, or on cream cheese, in dips, you name it. You can buy it online (I get this one), or you can make your own (I have found a recipe here). It lasts a long time and you can make loads at once if you like - it goes on all kinds of things! If you don’t want to use everything seasoning, some sesame seeds or poppy seeds on top would work great too.

A few wee tips for Smoked Salmon Hand Pies

There are a bunch of different flavours of Regal Smoked Salmon! I have linked to a 3 pack here, but they also come in 6 packs. They are vacuum sealed so will last a long time in your fridge or they freeze perfectly.
The pie dough lamination method came from my friend Erin and works so well! You basically just leave the butter chunks bigger than usual, then perform a bunch of folds puff pastry style to give a super flaky dough that puffs up so beautifully in the oven.
I like to give the pie dough overnight to rest if I can, but if you are in a pinch, a couple of hours resting time after you perform the folds is fine.
Make sure that you keep your dough nice and cold - I rolled mine out then cut it in half with a cutter, and popped it in the freezer for 10 minutes before cutting out the rectangles for the hand pies, then I froze the cut out rectangles too just briefly before assembly.
You can make the filling ahead of time too if you like - I made it and then popped it in a piping bag with the end still intact, and then clipped up the other end, and stored it in the fridge directly in the piping bag. The filling would also double very well.
The pies freeze amazingly, so if you like you can bake off some, and leave the others to bake another time. Just freeze them until totally solid on a lined baking sheet (pre egg wash), then transfer to an airtight container to store. When you bake them, you may just have to add a few minutes onto the bake time, but it won’t affect the final outcome.
If you don’t want to make a flaky pie dough you can just blend the butter in a little better using your fingers in the initial butter flour step, then just leave the dough to rest in the fridge. I almost always do the laminations now though because it makes the dough so, so much easier to work with and is only 5 minutes more work!

For more recipes using New Zealand Ingredients:

Thank you so much to Taste of New Zealand of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise for Sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Hand Pies with Everything Seasoning

Author: Erin Clarkson
Prep Time: 45 minutes plus chilling time
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 90 Minutes plus chilling time
Yield: 10 hand pies 1x

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Description

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Hand Pies with Everything Bagel Seasoning. Easy flaky pie dough is filled with a smoked salmon and cream cheese mixture, and baked until perfectly golden and flaky.

Ingredients

Scale

Flaky Pie Dough

375g all-purpose flour
Pinch of Salt
225g (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
240g (1 cup) cold water
1 cup ice
60g (¼ cup) Apple cider vinegar

Smoked Salmon Filling

One 100g Packet Regal Smoked Salmon
225g full-fat cream cheese
2 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp chopped chives, plus more to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste
Egg wash - 1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp water
Everything Seasoning (see notes)

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Instructions

FLAKY PIE DOUGH

Place flour and salt into a large bowl. Cut butter into chunks, and add to the flour. Toss lightly to coat. Working quickly, your fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture, squishing each cube between your fingers once. There will be big lumps left in the dough but as long as they are flat in shape this is fine - they get all rolled out during the folding process!
Combine ice, water and cider vinegar in a bowl. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the ice water into the flour and butter mixture, and using a stiff spatula or your hands, mix in well. Continue adding water a tablespoon at a time ( I normally need about 8-10 tbsp) until you have a dough that holds together well, but is not too wet. Squeeze together with your fingertips to make a homogenous dough.
Shape into a rectangle and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and rest in the fridge for an hour.
After the dough has rested for an hour, unwrap and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle, adding extra flour as needed (it doesn’t have to be perfect), and then dust off any excess flour and fold the dough in thirds like you were folding a letter. Roll out again into a rectangle, then repeat the folding process.
Re-wrap the dough and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, then repeat the rolling and folding process two more times (for a total of four folds), then wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and leave to chill for at least a few hours, or ideally overnight.

FILLING AND ASSEMBLY

Place the Regal Smoked Salmon, cream cheese, lemon juice, chives, salt, and pepper in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse until smooth, scraping down the edges as needed and adjusting for seasoning if necessary. Transfer the filling into a piping bag or a ziplock bag.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie dough into a large rectangle (at least 15”x16” - you want it to be able to fit 20 3”x4” (7cm x 10cm) rectangles). If you are worried about it getting too warm and soft, you can cut it in half and do this in two parts, or I like to roll it out and then cut it into two pieces and chill those briefly before cutting the smaller rectangles out.
Using a ruler and a sharp knife or pastry cutter, cut the pastry into 3" x 4" rectangles (7cm x 10cm). You should get 20 rectangles. Place the cut rectangles carefully onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and refrigerate for 10 mins or freeze for 5 mins to help firm up the pastry slightly.
Remove the pastry rectangles from the fridge and match up into pairs. Lightly brush the edges of one piece of pastry with egg wash, then pipe a rectangle of the salmon mixture. Top with a second piece of pastry, pressing down lightly around the edges to seal, ensuring that there are no air bubbles.
Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, then use the tines of a fork to press down around the edges to help seal. Repeat with the remaining rectangles of pastry until all the hand pies are assembled.
Place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze for 30-40 minutes, or until the dough becomes very firm. If you are planning on freezing them for a longer period of time, freeze solid then transfer to an airtight plastic bag.
While the pies are in the freezer, preheat the oven to 375°f / 190°f. Remove the pies from the freezer. Using a sharp knife, cut two slits in the top of each pie, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with everything seasoning.
Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the pies are deeply golden brown on the tops and bottoms (lift one up the check the bottom) Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store leftovers wrapped in foil at room temperature. Reheat in the oven to help keep the pastry crispy.

Keywords: Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Smoked salmon hand pies, hand pies, mini pies