Heart shaped chocolate strawberry pies to make your Valentine’s day better! Prepared for your special someone, or simply for yourself, these pies are a delicious must!

Pies are always a favourite and I tend to put everything in pie form! However, I’m still discovering the art of making dessert pies. So I decided to start this exploration with strawberry pies, as this fruit is relatively easy to work with and it’s one of my preferred fruits. In addition, as I love chocolate and strawberries together, I decided to make chocolate dough! And what’s the best time of the year to make this recipe, if not on Valentine’s day? Chocolate, strawberries and a hearts are all the symbols for this iconic day. Make it for your loved ones, family, or even for yourself as a treat to enjoy on these cold days.

What’s the difference?

This chocolate pie dough is relatively easy to make and not much different than any traditional dough. Basically it’s simple pie dough with cocoa powder kneaded into it. Ideally use a good quality cocoa powder so that the taste of the dough doesn’t become artificial. As any other pie dough, it’s also important to use cold butter and not to work the dough very much, so not to melt the butter.

Strawberry Filling

The filling for these chocolate strawberry pies is made of a sweet gooey strawberry mixture. Simply mix the strawberries, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla and let the strawberries macerate. This will help to bring out more the sweetness of the strawberries.

Have fun with these pies!

Even though here I’m instructing you to make them as heart-shaped pies, don’t limit yourself. Choose whatever fits best for you. You can either make them in half moons, circles, triangle, rectangles, etc. All these work just as fine. Although be careful with the cooking time, as my timings here are based on this shape and size. Keep in mind that if you make them smaller or even slightly larger this might effect the cooking time!

Ingredients

Chocolate dough

280 g plain flour
30 g cocoa powder
230 g cold butter diced
120 ml milk
25 g sugar
1 tsp salt

Strawberry Filling

200 g strawberries diced
25 g sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

For the dough

In a large bowl mix together the flour, castor sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
Add the cubed cold butter and work into the flour. You can either use a pastry cutter or work with your hands. If you're using your hands, you have to work fast so as not to melt the butter. Rub in all the butter in the flour until you have a coarse mixture with small pebbles of butter. This process can be also done in a food processor.
Slowly add the milk and knead to form a smooth dough.
Once the dough is ready, wrap into some cling film and store in the fridge for at least an hour or two.

For the filling

Mix the strawberries together with the sugar, vanilla and cornstarch. Set aside and let them rest for a few minutes.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 430°F.* Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
On a floured surface open the pie dough into a large circle of about 5mm thickness. From the circle cut the heart shapes with your cookie cutter. I have used a shape of about 8cm in width.
Fill the centre of the heart with the strawberry mixture. Make sure to leave space around the edges of the filling.
Place another piece of heart dough on top and seal around the edges. You can either leave them as such or else press them down further with a fork.
Place the pies on the lined baking tray and brush the top and sides of the pies with the egg wash.
Bake the pies for about 20 minutes.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or on a double boiler. Set aside.
Once the pies are ready, let them cool slightly before drizzling some of the melted chocolate on top.

Notes

*You can also make these in an air fryer with the following settings: 200°C and bake for 15 minutes.

If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!

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Chocolate Strawberry Pies

What’s the difference?

Strawberry Filling

Have fun with these pies!