Kid Friendly DIY Valentine's Day Treat Idea: Strawberry Hand Pie Recipe

My friend and I are teaching an Intro to 4-H at the Fair Class at our Homeschool Co-op. This week we were focusing on making posters. Whoopieeeee.... "NOT" said the children. In planning our day I knew I would need to add a splash of spectacular with a sprinkle of yummmacious to add to our "please lift your head up from the table and wake up" poster lesson.  A quick search to a few of my favorite inspirational blogs and I found the PERFECT finger licking, lip smacking project. 

It didn't take me long once I hopped on over to one of my very favorite blogs, Handmade Charlotte. This is a delightful blog packed full of heartwarming and creative projects & ideas. They had a post on these ooooh-la-la delish Strawberries & Cream Hand Pies by their new foodie contributor Sarah Kieffer from The Vanilla Bean Blog . I LOVE the photos they posted and the ease of the recipe is a double bonus.

To make an even easier version { Hey, before you judge, I was on the tail end of helping my husband plan an EVERYDAY HERO Awana Boys Overnighter the same day I was teaching this class} I used a refrigerated pie crust {gasp}. Yes, I did just type that and I did use it. This is NOT something I would usually promote as I find refrigerated pie crust to have less flavor, less flake and more preservatives...BUT the prep for this particular day needed to be minimal, like almost non-existent. 

All you need on your grocery list for these pockets of goodness are 7 simple items:

Pie Crust

Strawberry Jam

Cream Cheese

Eggs

Vanilla Extract

Sugar

Salt

For the complete recipe head on over to Handmade Charlotte.

The hand pies were a HIT! We had 11 kiddos eagerly assembling their precious, edible creations and we got them all made and baked in 40 minutes. Whew! They were YUMMY! So yummy that I used the leftovers when I got home to make my friends a little bagged treat for our weekend getaway that evening. 

These are the larger ones I made for my girlfriends with a little heart cut out. In addition to the hand pies I needed to whip up some quick packaging for some extra eye candy. By the time I pulled them out of the oven I had about 5 minutes left to whip up packing. Little brown lunch bags, red & white bakers twine, a hole punch and VOILA... simple packaging. Good things come in small paper bags, right?

I think they turned out pretty cute - and - the girls loved them!

-Simply Sublime