I’m going to make a sweeping generalization here, and you may not like it, so brace yourself. The world is broken into two camps — the pop tart camp and the pie camp. Now, you may have thought the two camps were cake and pie, and you wouldn’t be wrong exactly. But being someone who came late to the pie party (I was decidedly very un-pie and very pop tart/cake until more recently than I care to admit), I am here to tell you that there is a bridge between the camps, and that bridge . . . is hand pies. 
Hand pies have all the attributes of a pop tart that you (okay, I) love: portable, amazing crust to filling ratio, adorable (yes, some of us think pop tarts are adorable); and all the attributes of a pie: flaky and buttery crust coupled with yummy, over the top, seasonal fruit fillings. and these little strawberry numbers? To die. The crust is my go-to off the charts flaky pie crust with vodka redux and the filling a simple strawberry with a bit of black pepper for bite (essentially my strawberry rhubarb filling, minus the rhubarb). Although, honestly, you could use any of the fillings on this site, like rhubarb filling one or black and red raspberry filling or apple sour cherry filling one to fill your pies.
Because the crust and filling (basically) came from my archives and because hand pies are not unlike pie-pies (duh), I didn’t do a ton of research prior to offering up all this recipe goodness to you. But, I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I looked to Smitten Kitchen, Food52 and Bon Appetit, for thoughts on baking times and pie-size (and shape) and edge crimping technique. In the end, the pies take a bit more time than a regular pie and probably the same amount of time as homemade pop tarts.
Nothing about them is hard and the reaction to them? Very gratifying (ie: people love them). And kids, or at least the two that I live with, love them kind of the most (ie: way more than they could ever love pie, and maybe about the same as they love pop tarts).
[yumprint-recipe id=’56’] 
