Air Fryer Leftover Cranberry Sauce Hand Pies

These quick and easy cranberry hand pies are made with just four ingredients. Using store-bought pastry, leftover cranberry sauce, powdered sugar, and a simple icing drizzle, they are a perfect snack or dessert when you want something sweet but are short on time. A great way to use holiday leftovers, these hand pies freeze well and are perfect for the lunch box.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Step by Step Instructions
• Storage
• Tips for Success and FAQS
• More Air Fryer Pastry Desserts
• Printable Recipe

These air-fried cranberry hand pies are a super quick and easy treat made with simple ingredients.

You can use a can of store-bought cranberry sauce or make a batch of homemade cranberry sauce, but the best time to make this recipe is when you have leftovers from your holiday dinner, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Like the filling, you can use store-bought refrigerated pastry to make these hand pies, or if you are ambitious, you can make your own.

Handpies make a great dessert or snack, and because the filling is completely wrapped in pastry, they are easily portable, and you can eat them with your hands, so they make a great addition to the lunch box as well.

The best part about these air-fried hand pies is that they only take 8 minutes to cook. So they are perfect when you need something quickly but lack time.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Pastry – To make things easy, I used refrigerated pastry. It is sold in a package of 2 deep dish pie shells, perfect for making 8 hand pies. Of course, if you are ambitious, you can make your pie pastry instead.
• Cranberry Sauce – I use whatever cranberry sauce is leftover from my holiday dinner. You can use store-bought or homemade.
• Egg – Gives the hand pies a nice golden crust. You can leave the egg out without issues if you have an allergy.
• Powdered Sugar – Used to create the icing drizzle. If you don’t want icing, leave it off or use white chocolate drizzle instead.
• Orange Juice – Gives the icing a slight orange flavor, which always goes well with cranberry. You can use lemon juice or cream if you don’t have orange.

Pro Tip: Use the juice from a small mandarin orange if you have some on-hand. Fresh juice from a navel orange will work fine, as will store-bought orange juice.

Step by Step Instructions

Cut the Pastry & Fill the Pies

Step 1 – Unroll the pastry and cut each sheet into 8 rounds using a 3.5-inch cutter. Alternatively, you can make them bigger or smaller, use fun shapes such as hearts, or cut them into squares with a sharp knife.

You can bring the scraps together, roll them and cut them into additional rounds or save the scraps for something else, such as pastry scrap cinnamon sugar snacks.

Step 2 – Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of cranberry sauce onto eight pastry rounds.

Seal the Pies

Step 3 – Place the remaining pastry rounds on top of the filled rounds. Gently press around the edges with your fingers to bring the edges together, then use a fork to crimp around the entire edge to seal. Poke a few holes, or cut a small slit, in the top of each pie.

Step 4 – Whisk the egg and water in a small bowl, then brush over the top of each pie.

Air Fry the Hand Pies

Step 7 – Place the hand pies in an air fryer basket in a single layer. Work in batches if necessary.

Step 9 – Air fry the hand pies. Set the air fryer to 350°F and cook the pies for 8-9 minutes or until golden brown and slightly crisp.

Frost the Hand Pies

While this step is optional, it will add so much flavor and take these cranberry pies over the top.

Whisk the powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl until smooth and runny, then drizzle over the pies.

Let the icing set, which should only take a few minutes, and serve.

Storage

Store these cranberry hand pies in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

You can also store these in the freezer in an air-tight container for several months.

Tips for Success and FAQS

• Don’t overfill the pies. Adding lots of fruit filling is tempting, but if they are too full, they will burst open in the air fryer.
• Don’t crowd the basket. You need to cook these in a single layer and leave some room around them so the air can circulate properly, ensuring the bottoms are fully cooked.
• Let the pies cool before icing. You don’t have to let the pies cool completely before icing them, but you want to ensure they are not piping hot. If they are too hot, the icing will melt and be absorbed into the pies.

More Air Fryer Pastry Desserts

Printable Recipe

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