Pfft…those are just fancy Hot Pockets!The first episode of Chef Vivian Howard’s TV show Somewhere South was “American as Hand Pie”. It detailed the origins and general history of hand pies from all over the world, including the world’s favorite: empanadas.
Basically, nearly every culture that figures out how to make crusty bread makes pies, and most of THOSE cultures eventually make hand pies of some kind.
A lot are round…but many are also half moons, squares, triangles, bag shaped cylinders and even a couple barbell shaped ones.