Strawberry Hand Pies with Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream

steps

1. To make pie dough, mix together flour, cornstarch, salt, and sugar in bowl of food processor, and pulse to combine. 

2. Add cubed cold butter to bowl, and pulse until chunks of butter are barely visible. 

3. Add cold water to processor, and pulse until dough forms ball. 

4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and chill in refrigerator for about an hour.

5. To make filling, slice strawberries lengthwise, and combine with jam, salt, lemon juice and cornstarch just before filling pies.

6. Roll out dough until ⅛-inch thick, and cut out 3 rounds. Brush edge with egg whites, and spoon filling into center. Fold one edge over to form half-moon, and gently pinch edge together, and then crimp with fork to seal. At this point, pie can go back in refrigerator until ready to fry or can be frozen to use later.

7. Pour oil into heavy-duty pot and heat over medium heat to 375 degrees. Gently place pies in hot oil and fry until golden brown. 

8. Remove pies from pan, and place on paper towel to drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream

1. Pour milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, and salt into medium saucepan, and whisk thoroughly to combine. 

2. Place pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes consistency of heavy cream, or 180 degrees.

3. Pour mixture through fine strainer over top of cream cheese. Use stick blender or regular blender to combine. 

4. Cool over ice bath stirring frequently, then add vanilla extract. 

5. Pour ice cream base into sealed container, and let sit overnight in refrigerator. Follow manufacturer’s instructions on ice cream machine to churn ice cream.