Nutella Hand Pies

Ingredients

• 1 package (2 crusts) refrigerated pie dough, or a double batch of homemade dough
• 1 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• 2 tbsp coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Roll out the dough and cut into 5-inch rounds (or squares).
3. Spoon a small amount of the 1 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread filling onto one half of each round, leaving a border, then fold over and crimp the edges shut with a fork.
4. Arrange the hand pies on the prepared sheet, brush with the egg wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar, and cut a small slit in the top of each.
5. Bake for 18–22 minutes, until golden brown.
6. Cool slightly before serving.

The Tale of Nutella Hand Pies

Story updated September 15, 2026

Nutella hand pies are a modern mash-up, pairing an old pastry format with a spread that is itself a twentieth-century Italian invention. In 1946, in Alba, Italy, pastry maker Pietro Ferrero began blending hazelnuts, plentiful in the region, with a small amount of cocoa to stretch scarce, expensive chocolate supplies in the aftermath of World War II, producing a paste he called Pasta Gianduja. His son Michele refined the recipe over the following years, giving it a smoother, more spreadable texture, and the company renamed it Nutella when it launched commercially in 1964, quickly becoming a household staple across Europe and, eventually, the world. Turning that hazelnut-chocolate spread into a hand pie filling is a recent development with no clear single origin, part of a broader trend in American baking that took familiar candy, spread, and snack flavors and folded them into portable pastry formats, following the same hand pie tradition long used for fruit fillings but swapping in a modern, internationally beloved spread.