Cut the butter into small pats. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour and salt and mix together.
Add the butter and cut into the flour mixture. Keep cutting it in until you have small pea size pieces. You can also use your fingers to work through the mixture, rubbing away at the pieces until it almost resembles breadcrumbs.
Gradually add about half of the water, mixing well. Then spoon by spoon add more until you have a workable dough.
Once the dough has come together you can roll it into a ball, work it out into an even log (ish) and cut into four sections.
Roll each section into a ball and place into a plastic bag. Place in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to cool down.
Take one of the balls of dough and place it onto a floured work surface. Roll out until it’s about 1/8” thick.
With a small knife, carefully cut out some heart shapes that are about ½” big and place onto a plate. If you have a small heart shaped cookie cutter, even better, use that.
In a small bowl mix one of the egg whites with 1 Tablespoon of sugar and the red food color, mix well. In another small bowl mix the remaining egg whites with 3 tablespoons of sugar.
Using a small pastry brush, brush this red colored egg white all over the hearts on the plate. Set aside and allow to dry.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Using a heart shaped pie press, use it like you would a cookie cutter and cut out two hearts.
Take one of those hearts and place it on one side of the pie press. Press down on the edges so that it stays in place while you are putting the cherry pie together.
Take the other heart and do the same on the other side of the pie press.
Brush both sides with the egg white mix (without the red dye).
Add about 1 tablespoon of the cherry pie filling to one side, be sure to stay away from the edges of the pie.
Close the pie press together and press tightly, all around the outside. Open up the pie press and empty the pie out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Repeat the above steps for the remaining dough that’s left.
Brush the cherry pies with the clear egg wash then affix a red heart to each one.
Liberally sprinkle with sugar and bake for 28-30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before enjoying.
Notes
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 10 days.
You can use a large heart shaped cookie cutter instead of a pie press if needed. Use a fork to press the edges. If you are good free-hand you could also try that!
Make sure you allow the little red hearts to dry before placing them onto the hand pies, otherwise they may end up bleeding into the pie dough.
If you do not roll out the dough enough, you will get less than 26 hand pies - and your crust will be thicker (which may also take longer to bake).
You can certainly use store-bought refrigerated pie crust instead if preferred.