Mini Sweet Potato Hand Pies
Sweet potato hand pies are a toaster oven treat that’s perfect for the holidays. They’re everything you love about sweet potato pie in little hand-held portions.
Whole pies are pretty great but mini sweet potato hand pies are sooooo much better. They’re basically, ALL the tasty flavors of a big slice of sweet potato pie in tiny individual portions.
And you get to eat them with your hands!
Making the filling is the perfect way to use up a leftover Quick Baked Sweet Potato or a traditional toaster oven baked sweet potato.
- Just scoop the flesh out and give it a good mash.
- Stir in a few spices, brown sugar (don’t be shy about adding more if you like your pies sweeter) and some chopped pecans too.
At our house, we’ve always made hand pies using store-bought dough so they’re ready in no time. And truthfully, my homemade pie dough skills are pretty weak.
Is homemade pie dough your kryptonite too? Then the pre-made stuff is going to make you feel like a ROCK STAR. It’s buttery, flaky, and hard to ruin.
~ Keep scrolling for step by step photos & baking tips after the recipe ~
Mini Sweet Potato Hand Pies
Serve these mini pies with cinnamon whipped cream and a warm cup of coffee for a tasty afternoon treat.
Ingredients
- 1 Pre-made Pie Crust, thawed as directed on package
- Flour, for rolling
- 1/2 cup Cooked Mashed Sweet Potato, or canned sweet potato puree
- 2 tablespoons Packed Brown Sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1/8 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- pinch of Fine Sea Salt
- 2 tablespoons Chopped Pecans
- 2 teaspoons Turbinado Sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Adjust your toaster oven’s cooking rack to the middle position and preheat to 400°F or 375°F for convection toaster ovens, on the BAKE setting.
- Lightly grease a quarter sheet pan or line with a silicone baking mat.
- In a medium bowl combine the mashed sweet potato, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pecans. Taste and add more sugar or spices as desired.
- Unroll pie crust onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a 1/8-inch thickness.
- Use a 3.5-inch round cookie cutter to cut out circles from the dough. Reroll dough scraps to make more rounds.
- Spoon 2 teaspoons of filling onto one side of each round. Fold the un-topped dough over the filling side and press the edges with a fork to seal well. Cut two ½-inch vents in the top of each pie to release steam during baking.
- Lightly brush the top of pies with half and half or cream and sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake until golden brown, about 11 to 13 minutes.
- Move baked pies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve mini pies warmed or chilled, they taste great dipped in whipped cream!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 mini hand pieAmount Per Serving: Calories: 81Total Fat: 4.3gSaturated Fat: 0.6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 77mgCarbohydrates: 9.9gFiber: 0.4gSugar: 3.1gProtein: 0.8g
Toaster Oven Hand Pie Tips
If you’re iffy about using a pre-made crust check out this article from Simply Recipes on the best and worst store-bought pie crusts, our favorite, Trader Joe’s store brand crust was awarded the title of “Best Value.”
Even with using a pre-made crust, I did notice some things I could have done a bit better making our pies:
- Next time I’d pay more attention to how thick the dough is rolled. The filling to dough ratio was a tiny bit off.
- The dough was a little more crumbly than flaky. That’s probably because it was over 90 degrees the day I baked them. If your house is really warm pop the pan in the fridge for 20 minutes to let the butter in the crust firm up before baking.
- Feeling adventurous I tried sealing the dough edges a few different ways. Pressing with a fork was easiest and did the best job so I’d just stick with it next time.
The Secret To Tasty Toaster Oven Hand Pies
Isn’t in the pie dough…It’s baking a single mini pie first!
Just like when baking toaster oven cookies, baking a “test pie” is the easiest way to find the best cooking time and temperature for your specific toaster oven.
Related: 5 Tips That Will Make You A Toaster Oven Cookie Baking Expert
Then you can adjust the recipe based on your test, pop the remaining hand pies in to bake and rest easy that they’ll all turn out perfect.
Pssst…I promise not to tell if you eat the already cooked one while you wait!
And if you’ve been avoiding your toaster oven’s convection function this is a great recipe to start with.
The convection will cook them a little faster and the crusts will be beautifully light and golden.
Along with a batch or two of sweet potato nachos, pumpkin spice cookies or addictive roasted sweet potato rounds, these hand pies would be a fun addition to any holiday family gathering or office potluck.
(This sweet potato hand pies recipe was first posted on Food Fanatic)
Oh, how pretty they are! And filled with sweet potatoes, they must be delicious!
my only problem with hand pies is that you can’t really have them a la mode! 😉
That’s a good point if only someone would create a pie filled ice cream cone, then we’d be set 🙂
I would think if once completely cooled, take one pie and chopped it up well, fold into softened vanilla icecream and put back into freezer and when set… scoop into cone! 😉
Genius! 🙂