Make your strawberry filling by placing strawberries, corn starch and maple syrup into a pot over low-medium heat for 10-15 minutes until sauce thickens. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Allow your filling to cool completely before using. (I stick mine in the refrigerator while I do the following steps)

Roll out pie crust to 1/8 inch thickness

Cut out your heart shapes using a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

Place your cut out heart shapes on a non-stick baking sheet or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place these hearts in the refrigerator while you roll out your next batch of pie dough.

Whisk your egg in a small bowl to make your egg wash and use your finger to put egg wash on the edge of all of the hearts that were in the fridge.

Then place one tablespoon of strawberry filling on the hearts on the tray.  Don’t overfill or it will leak out and be hard to place the top heart on.

Now very gently stretch the remaining hearts and place them on top of the hearts with the filling.  Use the tines of a fork and press down on the edges to seal the hearts together.

Take a small knife and cut an X in the center of each heart to allow for ventilation as they bake.

Use a pastry brush and brush the egg wash on top of each pie heart.

Place all of your heart hand pies in the refrigerator for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake for 14-18 minutes until the top crust is golden brown. 

While the pies are baking, make your icing if desired. Whick together the powdered sugar, 2 tbsp milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl. If icing is too thick, add 1 tsp milk at a time until desired consistency.

Enjoy!