Polar Bear Hand Pies are shaped like polar bears, filled with cookie butter for the holiday season! You only need a few ingredients to make fun and festive hand pies with a flaky crust and creamy filling.
If you love these, you need to check out my Vegan Cherry Bakewell Reindeer Hand Pies and Vegan Apple Hand Pies. A fun and easy treat everyone can make for Christmas.
Polar Bear Hand Pies
I love making fun bakes for you all to try, and I think I have peaked with this recipe. Did you know, cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies! I love using festive shaped cookie cutters to create fun and unique desserts, sweets and treats.
Why you’ll love the Biscoff Hand Pies:
- They are easy to make
- Vegan friendly
- Can be made gluten-free
- Simple ‘easy to find’ ingredients
- Made using ready made puff pastry
- Takes less than 15 minutes to bake
- Can be enjoyed right away
- Great for parties
- Fun for kids to make and decorate
There are so many reasons to love these hand pies, I am so excited for you to make them!
Ingredients you’ll need to make these Biscoff Hand Pies
Puff pastry:
- Make sure to use a vegan friendly puff pastry. I use the Jus-Rol puff pastry that you can buy from most UK supermarkets. Simply use any puff pastry which you have to hand. If you wanted to make this recipe gluten-free, switch out the pastry for a gluten-free puff pastry version. Jus-Rol make is vegan and gluten-free already!
Biscoff spread / cookie butter:
- I used Lotus Biscoff for the filling of these hand pies. You can use your favourite cookie butter, jus make sure it is vegan friendly. To make this recipe gluten-free, you could switch out the Biscoff for a nut butter such as peanut butter or vegan Nutella.
Dairy-free milk:
- Any dairy-free milk will work perfect for this recipe. It is used as an ‘egg wash’ alternative.
Sugar:
- Use a sprinkle of white or granulated sugar over the pastry before baking, this will help get a richer golden colour once baked and make them more crispy on the outside.
Icing:
- To decorate the polar bear pastries, I made a simple icing of icing sugar mixed with dairy-free milk into a thick paste and piped it over the top of each pastry. To create the polar bear eyes and nose, I aded some black food gel to the icing, transferred it into a piping bag and piped on the details.
Vegan marshmallows:
- I cut a vegan vanilla marshmallow in half and stuck it into the middle of the hand pie to replicate the snout of a polar bear. Super effective.
Coconut:
- To make it look like the polar bear has ‘fur’ and detail, while the icing was wet, sprinkle over desiccated coconut. It makes the icing taste even more details too and adds more flavour to the overall bake. I also used some coconut flavouring in the icing for delicious flavour.
How to make Biscoff Polar Bear Hand Pies
These hand pies are super easy to make, yet look really effective and perfect for the festive season. You’ll only need a spare 10 minutes to put them together and an extra 12 minutes to bake, thats it! You’ll have an absolute blast baking these delicious, sweet and flakey pies! Happy Baking!
- Roll out the pastry
You will begin by lightly rolling out the puff pastry sheet. Doing this will smooth out any lumps or bumps in the pastry. Use a bear shaped cookie cutter to cut out the bear shapes and lay them on a grease-proof paper lined baking tray. The amount of hand pies you get depends on how large or small your polar bear pies will be.
- Filling
Spread or pipe some of the Biscoff spread into the middle of half of the bear shapes. Brush the edges of the pastry with dairy-free milk then lay another pastry shape on top. Press the edges down with your fingers to seal everything tightly together. You don’t want the filling oozing out.
Brush dairy-free milk over the pastry along with a sprinkle of sugar (this is optional). This will help the golden colour of the pastry when its baked. - Bake
Bake in the oven until the pastry puffs up and is a golden brown colour. Remove from the oven. You can enjoy the pastries warm, or wait until they cool down to add on some ‘beary’ cute details.
- Decoration
Mix icing sugar and dairy-free milk together until tooth-paste consistency. You want it thick but runny and easily pipeable. Transfer into a piping bag and pipe on top of the pastries. While the icing is still wet, press on the marshmallow for the snout, then sprinkle over some desiccated coconut (optional, but looks really effective). Colour some icing with black food gel, add to a piping bag and pipe on the nose and eyes.
Looking for more Christmas recipes, check these out
Melting Snowman Pop Tarts (vegan)
Coconut Snowman Sheet Cake (vegan)
Reindeer Vegan Cherry Bakewell Hand Pies
How to make a Giant Vegan Mince Pie
No-Bake Vegan White Chocolate Snowman Cheesecakes
‘Super popular’ Vegan Polar Bear Cupcakes
Easy Vegan Gingerbread man Cupcakes
No-Bake Gingerbread Man Truffles (vegan)
If you make, and love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you & happy baking! Make sure to tag me in your photos on Instagram and Facebook!
PrintBiscoff Polar Bear Hand Pies
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Biscoff Polar Bear Hand Pies are shaped like polar bears for the holiday season! You only need a few ingredients to make fun and festive hand pies with a flaky crust and creamy filling.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 sheets of ready roll puff pastry (Vegan & gluten-free)
- 6 tablespoons of Biscoff spread /cookie butter
- 3 tablespoons of dairy-free milk (for the ‘egg wash’)
- 2 tablespoons of caster / granulated sugar
Ingredients for the icing
- 250g of icing sugar
- 1 +1/2 tablespoons of dairy-free milk
- 1/2 teaspoon of coconut flavouring
- Black food gel
Decoration
- Desiccated coconut
Instructions
Method (pastry and filling)
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C fan and line 2 baking trays with grease-proof paper.
- Unroll the pastry sheets leaving in the baking paper. Use a rolling pin to slightly flatten out any wrinkles in the pastry.
- Using a bear shaped cookie butter, chomp out the shapes. Roll out the scraps to cut out a few more shapes. Transfer the pastry shapes to the refrigerator for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the Biscoff spread into a piping bag and pipe some into the middle of half of the pastry shapes. You can also use a spoon and spread it on.
- Brush some dairy-free milk around the edge of the pastries, this will help the pastry stick. Tip: Don’t add too much filling or it will ooze out when baking.
- Lay the un-filled pastry shapes on top, Make sure to use your finger to press the edges of the pastry together so that they don’t lift when they bake & puff up in the oven. You can even use a fork to crimp the edges.
- Brush the pastries with some dairy-free milk and sprinkle over some sugar (optional). This will help the browning of the pastry.
- It’s best to bake the pies a tray at a time as the pastry will puff up. I like to bake 6 on a tray at a time. Place into the middle of the pre-heated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden in colour and the pastry is flakey.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly on the tray then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Method (icing and decoration)
- Once the pastries are cool, in a small bowl mix together the icing sugar with the dairy-free milk and coconut flavouring. You want the icing to be of tooth paste consistency. If its too runny, simply add in more icing sugar. Transfer into a piping bag.
- Pipe the icing over the top of each pastry. Sprinkle over desiccated coconut (optional). Transfer any left over icing into a small bowl and colour with black food gel. Transfer this icing into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- Cut a vegan marshmallow in half and stick to the middle of the pastry (for the polar bear snout). Allow the icing to dry for 20 minutes.
- Pipe on the eyes and nose. Allow the icing to set then serve and enjoy.
Notes
To store: These are best eaten the same day they are made. However, you can store them in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 3 days.
Where to find vegan and gluten-free puff pastry? I use JusRol which I picked up from my local supermarket. You can find it in shops such as ASDA, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys.
Prepare the pastry: Remove the refrigerated pastry from the fridge and remove the packaging. Allow the pastry to sit at room temperature for 5-8 minutes. This will make the pastry easier to work with and roll out without tearing.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15-18 minutes
- Category: Pastry
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American