Fried Fruit Pie Recipe

by Hannah McClure  I think most folks can agree that pie is a crowd-pleasing dessert. Most holidays have at least one kind to serve up after supper. Pie is such a crowd-pleaser that you can even make savory pies for dinner. Today I’m going to be focusing on perhaps my favorite pie of all. Fried pie! A sweet treat I learned to make from my Granny and an Amish friend. Both shared with me two similar and yet different ways to make them. To this day, I cannot choose which is my favorite. In my neck of the woods, when I ask, “What can I bring?” to cookouts and gatherings, I am quickly told one of two things. Pie or fried pies.

I encourage you to take these delicious fried pies to your summer gatherings. They are sure to be the dessert that you and your loved ones didn’t know you were missing! And while you can fill them with almost any sweet filling, I will be sharing my favorite fried pie filling.

Enjoy! 

Dough 

• 4-1/2 cups cake flour 
• 1 tablespoon organic cane sugar or granulated sugar 
• 2 teaspoons sea salt 
• 1-1/2 cups shortening plus extra for frying 
• 1 cup water 
• 1 egg, scrambled well for sealing pies. 

Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar 
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch  
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract  
• 1/2 cup whole milk  

Filling

Pie filling of choice, homemade (here’s a recipe for apple) or store-bought. For this one, I’ll be using lemon filling.  

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, and salt.  
2. Add in 1-1/2 cups shortening and work till mixture becomes pea-sized bits.  
3. Add in water a little at a time and work dough till blended well.  
4. Chill dough for 15 minutes. 
5. While dough chills, lightly flour a clean work surface and gather your rolling pin, egg wash, filling, and a fork for pressing edges shut. 
6. Roll out dough and cut out circles (size as desired, I use a 3-inch circle cookie cutter).  
7. Fill the middle with about 1 tablespoon of filling (this is a rough estimate. If you find your pies aren’t sealing and the filling is spilling out, decrease the amount of filling). Wet only the inside edges of the dough with egg wash. Fold in half and press edges with a fork to seal shut.  
8. Once finished filling and sealing, fry in heated shortening till golden brown on both sides.  
9. In a small bowl, mix powdered sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and almond extract, and milk.  
10. While pies are still warm but not hot from the frying oil, dip pie into glaze being sure to cover all sides. Let drip dry on a cooling rack.  

Note:

For fun with the littles, I have (and encourage you to as well) used different shapes to create unique pies. If using other shapes, you will have half as many fried pies as you will need a top shape and a bottom shape with filling in-between. This is not a necessity but sure makes it fun for little ones. 

HANNAH MCCLURE is an old soul homemaker and mother of four from Ohio. Gardening, keeping bees, sewing, raising chickens/seasonal hogs, and baking/cooking from scratch are a few things she enjoys in her homemaking. Always learning and always chasing her littles. Find Hannah on Instagram @muddyoakhennhouse. 

Originally published in May/June 2022 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and vetted for accuracy.