Blackberry Turbinado Sweet Dough Hand Pies

Because of their tartness, blackberries, in my opinion, are best eaten in a cobbler or in a pie, rather than right off the vine. So when blackberries came into season recently, and I found myself with a bucketful, I went looking for a pie recipe. Looking through my mother’s cookbook on Mother’s Day, I found Gammy’s handwritten recipe for sweet dough pies. (Gammy was my grandmother.) I recognized her handwriting right away. At the bottom of the recipe she had written her grandmother’s name, Octavie Breaux Babb. Then below that she wrote her mother’s name, Augustine Babb Thibodeaux. And below that she wrote her own name, Yolande Thibodeaux Doiron. I took it as a sign. Here is my recipe for blackberry hand pies, using my great-great-grandmother’s sweet dough recipe.

Sweet Dough
1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar and softened butter together in mixing bowl. Add milk, vanilla and beaten egg. Mix dry ingredients separately, then stir into mixture. Form into a ball and chill in refrigerator for half an hour before rolling. Sprinkle some flour on the countertop and roll out the dough using a sheet of wax paper between the dough and the rolling pin.

Blackberry Filling

3 cups blackberries
1 cup turbinado sugar

Mash berries and stir in sugar. Cook over low-medium temp, stirring occasionally, until the mixture achieves the consistency of a jam. (Wild blackberries do not usually require pectin.) Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator for thirty minutes.

Use a drinking glass to cut out circles of dough, approximately 3 1/2 inches in diameter, and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Spoon blackberry filling into the center of the circles, being careful not to overfill them. Fold the circles in half over the filling and lightly pinch the edges of the dough together to form a seal. With a barely wet finger, lightly moisten the top of each pie and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. (Water helps the crystals to stick.) Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.