Step 1

In a small saucepan, cook dried apricots in 1/4 cup water, until tender and soft.

Step 2

Add cornstarch, sugar, salt, and butter to pan. Mix well with the apricots. Continue cooking for 3-4 minutes or until mixture has thickened.  Add additional water, if needed, to thin mixture out a bit.

Step 3

Once mixture thickens, remove it from heat. Pour into a small bowl, cover and chill completely. Once chilled completely, make the pastry dough and roll out on a lightly floured work surface. Using a biscuit cutter or a glass, cut 3 inch circles out of dough.

Step 4

Spoon about a Tablespoonful of the filling into the center of one half of the dough. Do not overfill or fill to the edges or the filling will run out while you are crimping the edges!

Step 5

Once pastry circles have been filled, pull over half of the dough to cover the filling. You should now have a half circle of dough. Use a fork to "crimp" around the edges of the half circle to seal the two pieces of dough together. This is very important, or the apricot filling will leak out while cooking!

Step 6

Preheat oil to 375 degrees. When oil is very hot, carefully place fruit pies in skillet. Cook a couple of minutes on each side. The dough should be golden brown before you turn them or remove them from the pan. Drain fruit pies on paper towels (to absorb extra oil). Making sure the oil in skillet is still very hot, repeat the process until all hand-pies are done cooking. Let hand-pies cool slightly (they will be hot inside!), then serve and enjoy!