I make this recipe for hand pies fairly often. The cherries are Montmorency Tart Cherries.

Make a sturdy dough similar to biscuit dough, (not the tender, flakey pie dough used for sliced pies). Fried or baked, hand pies must hold themselves together when fried, handled and bitten into. A light, flakey pie crust won't hold together if used as a hand pie crust.

For making about 6 hand pies, I use 1 cup dried tart cherries that are cut in half. I simmer the cherries in tart cherry juice. Only pour in enough tart cherry juice to just cover the cherries. Simmer for about 15 minutes then cover and set off the burner. Chill covered after that.

Once the fruit has chilled, strain off and save the tart cherry juice they cooked in.

Instant Cleargel does not need to be cooked to thicken the liquids they're added to. However, Cleargel must be cooked to thicken whatever it's added to. If you've ever used instant pudding mix mixed with cold milk to make pudding, then you've used Instant Cleargel. Otherwise known as modified food starch.

Instant Cleargel powder must be mixed with sugar first before being added to liquids, or the Instant Cleargel clumps immediately upon contact with liquids.

I mix 1/2 cup cane sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt to about 1 tablespoon Instant Cleargel powder, and usually another teaspoon of cherry powder. These dry ingredients must be very well mixed before being added to the tart cherry juice. Once the tart cherry juice comes in contact with the Instant Cleargel mixture, it must be continuously stirred to blend it very well. It'll begin thickening the cherry juice immediately.

Dump in the cooked tart cherries, and continue mixing until all is well blended, no clumps, and it has stopped getting thicker. If it's getting too thick, simply add a teaspoon of tart cherry juice at a time, stir and adjust as needed to get it to the preferred thickness.

For tart cherry hand pies, I like the filling to be somewhat thick, not runny. My hand pie filling is jam or preserves consistency.

Below is the hand pie crust I make most every time:

This is a forgiving dough. Variations in measures is fine. I begin with a little over 1 cup all purpose flour poured into a sealable bowl. To that add 1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt, and mix well. To that add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup soft lard. Then it's mashed and cut together with a hefty spoon or fork until mealy. No big flakes of lard. It must be a tougher dough than sliced pie crust dough.

I allow the dough to have all night long to absorb water, covered in the fridge before rolling it into crust the next day. It works best that way for me. I add 2 to 4 teaspoons of water to the mixture, turn it over with the spoon and mash it in on itself a bit, add a teaspoon more water, roll the dough and mash in, then add a teaspoon more water and repeat the above process. I stop adding water when the dough forms a ball that holds itself together.

The next day it will have absorbed the water if thete was slightly too much. Then it will be rolled out with more flour, so the water isn't as critical as it is with regular pie crust. I mix to combine at this stage, it'll get more mixed the next day when it's rolled and cut into dough rounds.

Keep mixing the dry ingredients until there are no large lumps of lard. Then add in the spoons of water a little at a time, lightly kneading and mashing until the dough forms a ball that holds itself together.

Preheat the oven to 325°f to 350°f.

Sprinkle all purpose flour on the work surface. Spray a baking pan with no stick oil spray. Remove the pie dough from the container and shape into a ball. It should be firmer than when first mixed. Lay the dough on the floured surface, sprinkle flour on top of the dough, then the rolling pin, and begin rolling out to about 1/8th inch thick, or slightly thicker.

Once rolled out, cut into rounds with the sharp edges of a pot lid that's about 6 inches across. Thinly rolled pie dough is too weak to support it's own weight and to hold up to cooking and holding to eat. 1/8th inch thick or a little thicker works best.

Lay the cut rounds to the side on a tray or pan. Reshape the dough scraps into a new ball after cutting out all the rounds it will make, roll out and cut more rounds until all the pie dough is used up. I generally get 5 to 6 rounds from these measures, unless I make 4 inch pies.

Larger pies are hard to handle, and risk bursting open while frying or handling. Four to six inch pies work best.

With your fingers, moisten the outside edges of a dough round with water. Mix the cherry filling before use, adding more juice if necessary if it's gotten too thick. Place a tablespoon of pie filling in the center of a dough round. As tempting as it is to add more filling, don't add more than that.

Gently flip the dough over the filling, bring the edges of dough evenly together and gently press the edges together with your fingers. Using the tines of a fork, carefully press the edges of the pies until crimped and sealed. Try not to puncture through the dough.

Place each pie on the baking pan. Spray the pies with butter spray before placing the pan of pies in the oven. This adds a lovely, buttery flavor to the pies and helps them to bake golden brown.

Bake until the pies are golden brown, with slight browning. Depending upon whether it's a humid or dry day determines how long they take to brown. A dry day, they won't take very long. On a humid day, they could bake 45 minutes to an hour before becoming golden brown.

These are not terribly sweet hand pies, they're tart. If you want sweeter pies, by all means add more sugar in your pie filling. I offer this as a starting point for you.

I'm type 2 diabetic with frequent sugar-crashes. This recipe works well for me as a recovery food that doesn't spike my blood sugar too much.