Gluten Free Croissant, Part 2

An easy and fast way to use leftover croissant dough... apple pie!

Okay, I really was not planning a “part 2”, but… I ended up with a little bit of leftover GF croissant dough in the fridge and did not use it for more croissants.  So, I got to thinking that the dough might actually be a great stand in for pie crust.  I have always wanted to try it, so I gave it a shot.  There was only enough of the gluten free dough left for two “hand” sized pies.  You know, the ones like those Hostess Fruit pies in the individual serving packages.  Oh yes, my favorite as a kid was the cherry fruit pie.  Well, the only fruit “filling” I had on hand this time around was some homemade apple sauce.  The croissant dough really worked well and was not too hard to work with.  If I would have chosen a pie plate version, it might have been a little more challenging.  I would have had to make sure the dough was really, really cold.  However, these individual hand pies turned out really nice.  Here is what I did that made them so easy:

Gluten Free Croissant Hand Pies

Ingredients:

• Leftover GF Croissant Dough, well chilled
• Apple Sauce, mine was quite chunky as it is homemade
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tbls Sugar
• 1 Tbls Butter, cold
• Small dish of water or rice milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Quickly roll out the remaining dough on a well floured board (rice flour that is!).  Make them any size you wish, just keep it manageable so that you can easily move it from the board to the baking sheet without much trouble.
4. Add apple sauce to one side of  your rolled out dough.  Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture and dot with a little of the butter all over the apple sauce.  Using your finger or a pastry brush, brush some water or rice milk along the clean edge of your pie dough.  Fold the other half of the dough over your apple sauce and crimp the edges together.  You can use a fork to do this or your hands.
5. Transfer the pies to your prepared baking sheet and poke a few holes in the tops with either a fork or a sharp knife.  Brush the tops with more water or rice milk.  You could even sprinkle on more cinnamon sugar if you prefer.  Let rise for 10-15 minutes on your countertop.  Then, bake in the center of the preheated oven for approximately 20-30 minutes.  Your baking time will depend on how big you make them.  Adjust your time accordingly.
6. When done, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

These also froze well.  We ate one right away and put the other one in the freezer once it was cool.  To reheat, we put the frozen hand pie on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked it for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven, watching to make sure it did not burn around the edges.  Then next time you make gluten free croissants, save a little of the dough to make these GF hand pies with your favorite fruit filling as well!