Win Halloween by serving a buffet of haunted hand pies. Take a shortcut using store-bought dough to leave more time to focus on the festivities. Featuring a severed hand meat pie, a creepy eye calzone, and shrunken head apple pies, you'll have an assortment of savory and sweet snacks to please a (costumed) crowd.
Severed Hand Meat Pies
Things You\’ll Need
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1 tablespoon olive oil
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1/2 cup onions, diced
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1 pound ground beef
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1 packet taco seasoning
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1/2 cup salsa (or tomato sauce)
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Shredded cheddar jack cheese
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Paper, pen and scissors
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1 box pre-made pie dough (2 crusts)
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Flour
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Egg
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Hot sauce
Step 1
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup diced onions and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add the ground beef, taco seasoning and salsa. Stir to crumble the beef and cook until brown, about ten minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Step 2
Preheat oven to 425° F. Create a hand template by tracing your hand onto a sheet of paper and cutting it out with scissors.
Step 3
Sprinkle flour over your work surface and roll out one sheet of pie dough to 1/4-inch thick. Place the hand template onto the dough, and use a small knife to cut out two hand shapes. Re-roll the scraps, and repeat to make additional hands. You should be able to get eight hand pieces for a total of four hand pies from both sheets of dough.
Step 4
Place one hand onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and spoon one tablespoon of the taco mixture into the palm of the hand. Add a pinch of shredded cheese on top.
Step 5
In a small bowl, prepare an egg wash by beating one egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash around the edges of the hand, and then place the other hand on top. Press the edges lightly together and then use a fork to crimp around the entire hand to seal.
Step 6
Brush more egg wash on top of the hand pie and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Check at the halfway point to make sure the fingers aren't getting too brown, and cover with foil if needed.
Step 7
Once cool, chop the hand in half diagonally. Put salsa or hot sauce around the cut to look like blood.
Creepy Eye Calzones
Things You\’ll Need
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1 box pre-made pie dough (2 crusts)
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Pizza or marinara sauce
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Shredded mozzarella
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Pepperoni
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Green olives
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Egg
Step 1
Preheat oven to 425° F. On a floured surface, roll out one sheet of pie dough to 1/4-inch thick. Use a cereal or soup bowl to cut out circles from the dough.
Step 2
Place the circles onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spoon a tablespoon of pizza or marinara sauce onto one side of the dough, leaving the other side empty. Put a tablespoon of shredded mozzarella on top of the sauce, followed by two or three pepperoni slices. Top the pepperoni with a pinch more shredded cheese.
Step 3
Fold the empty side of the dough over top of the cheese, forming a half moon shape, and pinch the edges together. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal.
Step 4
Slice a green olive in half, and wrap a thin piece of pie dough around it, forming it into the shape of an eye.
Step 5
Place the olive on top of of the calzone, and smooth the bottom of the dough into the calzone to secure in place.
Step 6
In a small bowl, beat one egg with a tablespoon of water, and brush the top of the calzone with the egg wash. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Shrunken Head Apple Pies
Things You\’ll Need
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1 box pre-made pie dough (2 crusts)
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2 cups apples, peeled, cored & diced
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1/4 cup sugar
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2 tbsp flour
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1 tsp cinnamon
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1/2 tsp vanilla extract
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Butter
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Egg
Step 1
In a mixing bowl, combine the diced apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla extract.
Step 2
Roll out one of the pie crusts on a floured surface until 1/4-inch thick. Use a small bowl or glass to cut out circles in the dough (no smaller than 3 inches in diameter).
Step 3
On half of the circles, cut out eyes and mouth shapes to look like shrunken heads. No need to be perfect, as the more distorted the features, the better. Then pinch some pie dough into nose shapes and secure onto the faces. Lastly, roll small logs of dough and place them around the mouth to form lips.
Step 4
Scoop about a tablespoon of the apple mixture onto each pie dough circle. Top with a small pad of butter. In a small bowl, beat one egg with a tablespoon of water. Brush the egg wash around the edges of the dough.
Step 5
Place the pie dough circles with faces on top and pinch the edges together. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal.
Step 6
Brush more egg wash on top of the faces, and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Fast, easy, and super spooky — not to mention, delicious. No slight of (severed) hand here. We're pretty sure your ghostly goodies will be gobbled up in the blink of an eye!
