Place 1 cup of fresh berries in a medium saucepan. Bring heat to medium high, add sugar. Smash the blueberries with the back of a large spoon, or a potato masher to break berries. Mix the berries with the sugar, fresh lemon juice, and lemon zest. Cook until all of the berries burst or are smashed and the mixture bubbles a bit, about 5 minutes. Continue to stir during cooking so berries and sugar do not burn. Turn off heat. Add almond extract, dry tapioca and remaining berries to cooked mixture in pan. Mix well. Let sit in pan for about 5-10 minutes while making crust. It is fine to let this sit in pan the entire time you are preparing the pie crust.

Meanwhile, prepare crust. Follow directions for pie crust recipe.

Lightly grease two jelly roll or baking sheets.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Generously flour clean counter top or surface. Using a round lid ( I used a 6 inch diameter lid) roll out half of the dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Press the lid into the dough to make 3-4 circles.

Spoon about 1/4 cup of filling into the center of each circle. Fold over the circle to meet the opposite edge and crimp edges firmly to seal. Gently place on baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg wash if desired, cut small slits for steam to escape and sprinkle with sugar. I bake about 4-5 hand pies per baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Bake hand pies for about 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven. If some of the sugars from the filling have seeped out, use a spatula and carefully remove the pie from the baking sheet to another surface to cool immediately after finished baking. This will prevent the hand pie from sticking to the surface of the baking sheet as it cools.

After the pies are cooled, sprinkle with additional sugar.

Yield: about 8- 6 inch hand pies