Quince Hand Pies

Ingredients

• For the Crust
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Cold water
•  
• For the Quince
• 2 large quince
• 1 lemon
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• Pinch each of ground cardamom, allspice and coriander
• To Bake
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons water
• Sugar in the raw

Directions

1. For the crust, slice the butter into half-inch cubes, then stash it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Add the flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, and start it on the lowest speed. Drop in the cold butter a little at a time, mixing until no bits are bigger than peas. Trickle in cold water slowly, stopping as soon as the dough holds together. Press the dough into two discs, cover snugly in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
2. For the quince, peel the fruit and divide each one into quarters, swiping the cut sides with lemon as you work so they do not brown. Trim away the cores carefully, then slice the quarters crosswise into quarter-inch pieces. Coat the slices with lemon juice. Put the quince in a large saucepan along with sugar, butter, cream, vanilla and the spices. Set the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the fruit is tender and the mixture has turned caramelized, about one hour. Take it off the heat, adjust the spices to your taste if you want, and let the filling reach room temperature before you fill the pies.
3. To assemble, dust your work surface lightly with flour and roll the first dough disc until it is one-eighth of an inch thick. Stamp out as many 3-inch rounds as the dough will give you, keeping the scraps, and transfer the rounds to a parchment-lined sheet to chill. Do the same with the second disc, then roll the collected scraps and cut more rounds from them. Throw away the remaining scraps.
4. Whisk the egg yolk and water together for the egg wash. Spoon 2 teaspoons of quince onto the middle of each chilled dough round, then run egg wash with your fingertip around the edge of half of each round. Bring the dry half over the filling and press the border softly so it closes. Move the pies to the freezer for 5 minutes, then make 3 small vents in the top of each one, give each pie a light coat of egg wash, and scatter sugar in the raw over them. If you want to bake them later, freeze the pies now.
5. To bake, center a rack in the oven and heat it to 375 degrees F. Arrange however many pies you are baking on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between them. Bake them fresh or frozen for 10 minutes, rotate the pan, and continue baking for about 10 minutes more, or as much as 15 minutes more if they went into the oven frozen. They are ready when the quince bubbles through the vents and the pastry is golden brown. Let them cool a little before you serve.