Easy 4 ingredient oven-baked Lemon Hand Pies Recipe: flaky, baked hand pies with a sweet lemon filling! A dusting of powdered sugar adds a beautiful finishing touch.
If you love lemon desserts, be sure to try these soft and fluffy Lemon Ricotta Cookies. Or give our lemon cheesecake recipe a try for the ultimate treat.
Why this Recipe Works
If you love lemon tarts, think of these hand pies as the portable version! Bright lemon tang meets a buttery pie crust in this simple recipe.
- Only 4 ingredients for the ultimate easy hand pie recipe!
- Refrigerated pie crust creates perfect flaky crust. No guess work or hassle.
- Use prepared lemon pie filling or whip up a batch of Homemade Lemon Curd.
- Hand pies are so easy to transport, eat and share at any occasion.
We’re no stranger to hand pies around here. From easy blueberry hand pies, to festive cherry hand pies, we’ve got you covered with flavors and techniques!
Ingredient Notes
We love that this recipe is only three ingredients! You can make it as easy or as difficult as you like.
- Pie Crust- whether you choose homemade pie crust or refrigerated pie crust, it’s totally your call.
- Lemon Pie Filling- we love the flexibility of this recipe. Use a can of lemon pie filling or a batch of homemade lemon curd.
- Eggs- separate the egg. Use the egg yolk around the edges of the hand pie to help it stay closed. And brust the tops of the hand pie to give it a beautiful color and texture.
- Powdered Sugar- completely optional, but a delicious finish to this sweet treat.
How to make Lemon Hand Pies
- Cut pie crust. Let refrigerated pie crust come to room temperature. Unroll and cut each crust into 6 circles using a biscuit cutter. You can use our homemade pie crust if you prefer.
- Fill and shape. Drop a tablespoon of lemon pie filling (or homemade lemon curd) into the center of each crust circle.
- Close and pinch. Brush the edges of the open hand pie with egg yolk, or water. Fold each one in half and pinch the edges. Press the tines of a fork along the seam to seal.
- Bake. Brush the tops of each hand pie with beaten egg white. Bake the pies for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Tips and Tricks
- If making homemade lemon curd for these pies, reserve the whites from your egg yolks. You can use the egg whites to brush the tops of the lemon hand pies! Or use the egg whites to make meringue cookies or white cake.
- Chill the baked hand pies before serving for best taste! If you can’t wait, go ahead and enjoy right away.
- We love how easy this recipe is when using refrigerated pie crust and canned pie filling. And the flavor is magnificent. That said, feel free to use homemade ingredients if you feel the urge or need.
- For more flavors, swap out the filling for other fruits. Our peach hand pies and apple hand pies are equally delicious!
- Swap out the powdered sugar and drizzle some sweet icing on the top instead.
- Try out our lemon chess pie recipe next for a sweet custard treat!
Recipe FAQs
Using two boxes of prepared pie crust (2 crusts each) this recipe will yield about 24 small hand pies.
Getting that 6th circle can be tricky. Try gathering up the dough scraps and rolling them out again to create enough crust for the sixth circle.
And if you don’t wind up with 6 full circles, don’t worry! You’ll still have plenty of delicious lemon hand pies to enjoy.
Make sure to completely seal the edges of each hand pie before baking. I use fork tines to seal them together. You can also press with your hands and give the corners a slight twist to prevent the lemon filling from escaping. Dip your fingers in water or egg yolk and brush along the edges of each circle. This helps the pie crust seal and not leak.
Yes, you can freeze them after baking and cooling. When ready to eat, let thaw in the fridge and dust with powdered sugar.
Frozen lemon hand pies will keep well about 2 to 3 months.
More Lemon Recipes
Also, give these Apple Empanadas a whirl on a fall day!
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Lemon Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 2 boxes refrigerated pie crust 14.1 ounce each
- 1 can lemon pie filling (or homemade lemon curd) 15 ounce
- 1 egg white beaten (save the yolk to brush the pie crust edges)
- ½ cup powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Remove pie crusts from package and allow to come to room temperature while you prepare filling.
- Unroll pie crusts and cut 6 circles from each crust using a 4-inch biscuit cutter. You may have to re-roll the scraps to get the 6th circle.
- Using a 1 tbsp cookie scoop, drop lemon pie filling into center of each pie crust circle. Brush the edges of each circle with water or beaten egg yolk. Fold in half and pinch edges completely. Fold pinched edges over and press with the tines of a fork to seal. Poke hand pie with fork once, to prevent bursting.
- Beat egg white in a small bowl until frothy. Brush over the tops of each hand pie. Bake on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (1 inch apart) for about 15 minutes, until browned.
- Remove cooked pies from baking sheet and cool completely. Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar and enjoy. These are great refrigerated and served chilled.
Notes
- Use our recipe to make homemade lemon curd for the filling.
- Chill the baked hand pies before serving for best taste! If you can’t wait, go ahead and enjoy right away.
- Swap out the store bought crust for my Homemade Pie Crust recipe if you have some extra time on your hands!
- Store hand pies in refrigerator for up to 3 days for best flavor and texture.
- See blog post for more recipe tips and tricks.
My family LOVES lemon pies, but they’re so hard to find in store. I had a can of lemon pie filling just sitting in my pantry and decided to try my hand at it. I followed your recipe to a tee (and even did the handmade crust you linked in) and they turned out so yummy and beautiful!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this recipe, I’m going to try it with Nutella tomorrow!
Your recipe is great, there are a lot of nasty people out there who are not happy unless they make other lives miserable. Using pre made pie crust is ideal for the working mother or for someone who want’s to make a quick desert. Thank You.
I’m so happy I found your site!! I can’t wait to eat these yummy hand pies (they’re in the oven now!)
I’m sorry you have to deal with mean comments. I don’t get people.. Delicious, easy, what’s to bitch about? 😍
🙂 Enjoy!!
I’m not sure what keeps going wrong. 🙁 I tried this several times today, but even with poking holes in the top and making sure they’re pinched closed/pressing the fork down to seal, the lemon curd basically liquifies and melts out of each one. Could it be the specific curd I am using?
When you seal your turnover, you pinch and twist pinch and twist.
All your hand-pies look wonderful. BUT, it would be a disappointment for others like me who are maybe remembering Hostess brand “hand-pies”. I’m thinking they must be 5inches round and then folded. They were so much larger than I think your recipe makes. Do you remember these pies? It’s no problem to make bigger ones I’m sure, just a bigger circle. But I wonder if some are disappointed at the size.
Then eat 2, damn!
😂
I can’t get back to the peach cobbler recipe. I would love to have it.
I am so bad. Do you remember Arthur Treachers lemon pies. They were to die for. I am so excited to find your recipe going to try it today. Have plenty of time with this isolation going on
Love love love this idea
I could not find the homemade lemon curd recipe
Here you go: https://www.shugarysweets.com/easy-homemade-lemon-curd/
I just found your recipe for Peach Hand Pies. Now I have pinned the peach, the berry, and now the lemon. Please tell me you have a chocolate version for these hand pies! No more hostess in this home 🙂
I do, but it’s more of a s’mores. I’ll have to get on a chocolate “pudding” like one, that sounds amazing! I forgot about those 🙂
Why some people have to be sooo judgmental? If they want to do what they prefer to do, then more power to them,I feel if they have nothing good to say just ZIPPE IT
This is the perfect lil sweet snack.????
I would use other pie filling flavors too.
These look so good! I always loved little lemon pies!
Pie crust is a short crust for England and AU. They freeze ok, tried that last weekend.
“2 boxes (14.1 oz each) refrigerated pie crust”
“1 can (15 oz) lemon pie filling”
Looks great, but you call this a recipe? 😀
I sure do! A recipe is a collection of ingredients. If you want to make your own pie crust, go for it. Use homemade lemon curd, more power to you. This is just a starting point 🙂
Misprint or did I miss something 2 boxes, 6 circles per roll/box = 12 but yield is 24???
Each box has two rolls of pie crust 🙂