Puffy Savory Sweet Potato Hand Pies Recipe

The sweet potato is a versatile fall vegetable that stars in many holiday sides, showing off its earthy sweetness in a variety of ways. In these puffy savory sweet potato hand pies, we've blended them with aromatic garlic, shallots, and thyme along with creamy Gruyère cheese, then wrapped them in buttery and crispy puff pastry. Serve these hand pies for a creative appetizer, a side at the holidays, or even a vegetarian main course alongside soup or salad. Though they're simple to put together, they're elegant enough for any fall or festive entertaining. They make a fun snack on game day or movie night, and due to their portable nature can be the perfect way to enjoy the flavors of fall at your next picnic or sporting event.

Wellness coach and recipe developer Miriam Hahn brings us this recipe and says, "I love working with puff pastry and over the years have created many types of delicious hand pies. Another one of my favorites is this savory mushroom and lentil hand pie recipe. Once you try making hand pies, you'll want to try all sorts of variations."

To make this recipe, start in the produce aisle and pick up sweet potatoes, shallot, garlic, and fresh thyme if you want to add some garnish to the finished hand pies. There are many types of sweet potatoes, and the best for this recipe are the ones with an orange interior. Japanese sweet potatoes, which are white inside, tend to be drier and can be used, but the end result won't be as creamy.

You'll need some frozen puff pastry sheets along with butter, milk, eggs, and Gruyère cheese. Then hit up your pantry for garlic granules, salt, pepper, dried thyme, and flour.

Preheat the oven to 400 F

Remove the puff pastry from the package and let it thaw according to package directions.

Poke the sweet potatoes several times and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, add the butter to a frying pan and bring the heat to medium-high

Add the shallot, garlic, garlic granules, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook for 8 minutes.

Add the flour, stir and cook for 3 minutes.

When the potatoes are done scoop out the flesh into a bowl and discard the skin. Mash the flesh with a fork.

Add the shallot and garlic mixture to the potatoes along with the milk, egg yolks, and cheese.

Reduce the oven temperature to 375 F.

Roll the puff pastry out to thin it and remove the fold lines.

Take a 4-inch bowl or cutter and cut out 16 circles from each dough sheet. You will need to re-roll scraps to get the last few circles.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixture until soft peaks form.

Fold this into the sweet potato mixture.

Spoon some of the sweet potato mixture onto half of each circle.

Fold the dough over, seal it with your fingers, and use a fork to add a fluted edge.

Cut a couple of small slits on the top of each hand pie.

Brush each pie with the beaten egg and bake for 12-15 minutes until puffy and golden.

Top with fresh thyme, if desired, and serve.

There are many ways to repurpose the sweet potato filling for use in other recipes. For starters, you can make a larger version of the hand pies if you want them to be more of a main dish. If you want to keep the arched half-circle shape, use a 6-7-inch round shape to cut out the dough. You can also cut a 6x6-inch square out of the dough and fold opposite points to form a sealed triangle. On the other hand, for a smaller version, you can make half a batch and fill pre-made phyllo cups for a pop-in-your-mouth appetizer.

You can also use the sweet potato souffle filling on its own, cooked in a small ramekin for a gluten-free option. Just fill 3-inch ramekins, set them on a large baking sheet, and place this into the oven to make a batch of sophisticated mini souffle side dishes. Try adding the filling into casseroles like a veggie lasagna or shepherd's pie. Or layer it inside a tortilla to make a sweet potato quesadilla. You can also serve a scoop of the sweet potato filling as a flavorful holiday side dish with a splash of gravy.

There are many ingredient substitutions that can be made in this recipe to suit your preferences or what you have on hand. To start, to save a step, instead of using fresh sweet potato, you can buy canned sweet potato puree. You can also replace the sweet potatoes with butternut squash or pumpkin. To use butternut squash, roast or boil it until it is tender before mashing. Canned pumpkin is readily available and easy to sub in.

If you don't have shallots on hand, you can substitute red onion. Since shallots are a little more delicate in flavor, you only need about 1 tablespoon of diced red onion. Alternatively, you can use 1-2 diced green onions to provide the allium flavor.

To make the recipe vegan, start by selecting vegan puff pastry – in fact many store-bought varieties of puff pastry happen to be vegan. Then you'll want to use dairy-free butter, any type of dairy-free milk, and dairy-free cheese. If dairy-free Gruyère cheese is not available, another white cheese like mozzarella or jack cheese will work fine. You can just omit the eggs without much change in taste or texture, and instead of brushing the hand pies with an egg wash before baking, simply spray them with cooking spray.