Oh do I love a good Savory Pie! I’ve made my recipe for Black Bean Pie numerous times and it always comes out great. So I decided to make my own crust and play around with some filling options and wow oh wow are these amazing, the Butternut Squash filling ones are beyond good, and the ones using the Black Bean Pie filling are delightful as always! These are also an awesome make ahead and throw in the freezer until ready to eat type of dish!

Ingredients
- For the Cheddar Crust you can half this, I doubled my recipe to make 2 separate batches: 5 Cups Flour
- 4 oz Sharp Cheddar Cubed
- 1.5 Sticks Butter
- 1 Stick or 6 oz baking Vegetable Shortening
- 3 Tbs sugar
- 2 Tsp salt
- 1/4-3/4 cup ice water
- 3 tsp apple cider vinegar
- For the Butternut Squash savory filling: 2 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 small onion
- 1/2 lb italian style ground turkey
- 1 cup cubed butternut squash
- 1/2 an apple peeled and finely chopped
- dash of salt/pepper
- Approximately 5 Tbs Farmers Cheese
- Approximately 5 Tbs shredded sharp cheddar
- Herbs de Provence for sprinkling on top
- For the Black Bean Savory Pies: 1/2 small onion
- 1/2 lb Italian style ground turkey
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
- Approximately 5 Tbs Farmers Cheese
- Approximately 5 Tbs shredded sharp cheddar
- chili powder and cumin for sprinkling on top
- 1 egg plus 1 tbs for egg wash
Instructions
- For the crust: Put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blend for a few seconds. Next add the butter, shortening and cheddar and pulsate until combined (for a more chunky cheese crust you can add the cheese last). Next add the wet ingredients, adding as much water until there is a soft doughy consistency (mine used 3/4 cup water with the doubled recipe...don't add too much water because then the dough becomes unmanageable and you will need to add more flour! Carefully take out of the food processor, form into two ball/disc shapes, wrap with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 45 min or in the fridge for an hour and half.
- For the fillings: In a large pan combine olive oil, onion and Italian ground turkey and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. When the ground turkey is almost done take half of the mixture out and put it in a bowl (this will be the bowl for the black bean filling.) In the pan add the butternut squash and the apple, let cook until turkey is all cooked through and the butternut squash is almost done, about 5 min. In the bowl with half the turkey add the black beans and salsa and stir.
- When removing dough from the freezer, flour a surface liberally and with a rolling pin roll the dough out, and then cut each disc into 8 roughly equal pieces.
- Preheat oven to 400.For assembly, spoon a dollop of the Farmers cheese onto each piece, add a few heaping teaspoons of filling, add a sprinkling of cheddar cheese, then pick up the corners folding them into each other and pick up the entire thing and form it into a ball shape, then put seams-side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. I worked in two batches, I made one set of 8 hand pies with the butternut squash filling, then another set with the black bean filling, and each kind got its own baking sheet. Brush the egg wash on, sprinkle with seasoning and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then enjoy!

Flakey cheddar crust rolled out
The beautiful hand pie on a plate
Leslie Miller says
The sound to die for! And yet I’m so confused about the recipe above.
Are there 3 distinct recipes? One for crust and two for fillings? If I only make one filling, what’s size of crust recipe do I make?
Sweetphi says
Hi Leslie,
So sorry the recipe is a little confusing (it was written 6 years ago). Yes, it is three recipes – it’s for a crust and then two fillings. The pie crust says that it could be halved if you only want to make one of the fillings – hope that helps!
Phi
Leslie Miller says
Would I just halve the 5 cups of flour? So, 2.5 cups? Or do I then halve the following ingredient amounts of
4 oz Sharp Cheddar, Cubed
1.5 Sticks Butter
1 Stick or 6 oz baking Vegetable Shortening
3 Tbs sugar
2 Tsp salt
1/4-3/4 cup ice water
3 tsp apple cider vinegar?
Really great sounding recipe! Thanks for your patience!
Sweetphi says
Thank you for the question. So the pie dough/crust makes enough dough for 16 hand pies, 8 of each filling. If you’re making only one of the fillings, you would half each of the ingredients to make enough pie dough for 8 with one filling. Hope that helps clarify it!
Janet Blomquist (@JBlomqui) says
I made these a while back and remember really liking these! Since I am being OH SO lazy today I decided I’ll make the filling only because it really is DELICIOUS to have as just a side with any other meal or maybe even just as a meal itself! 😀 With this laziness I am feeling comes a question, Because I do not want to head out to the grocery store for just an onion…would onion flakes and onion powder suffice? I hope so because I have been salivating for the ground turkey and beans filing 😀
Sweetphi says
Thank you for the comment! I was telling Nick about it, and he heavily suggested that I make these again ASAP, haha!
I would definitely say that the onion flakes and powder would suffice! I do that all the time actually (same with garlic powder or salt instead of fresh garlic). Let me know how it turns out and what you ended up doing (I might just make a new recipe!)