Being from Texas, we always had fried pies. My favorite was the apricot. My mil made chocolate fried pies, her boys always loved them. I don't care for chocolate so never did try to make them. I made blackberry, peach, apricot.
Here's my fried pie crust -
3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup Crisco or other good vegetable shortening
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
Note: sometimes I add 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg to flour.
Mix together the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender, fork, your hands, or whatever method works best for you, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir together the beaten egg with the water and sprinkle over flour mixture. Sprinkle in the vinegar, mixing lightly, until ingredients are well combined. Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and cut it into four equal pieces. You can then cut each of the four pieces into three equal pieces, leaving you with 12 golf-ball-size dough balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 5- to 6-inch circle. Your circles do not have to be perfect, and ragged edges are okay.
Put 2 generous tablespoons of filling onto one side of the circle of dough. Seal the pie by wetting the inside edge of the dough with water (use your finger), and then fold over the dough, making the familiar half-moon-shaped pie. Make sure the edges of the dough are even, and press and crimp to insure a good seal. You can use a fork to give you a bit of a decorative edge if you like. You can also correct the more ragged edges during this step because the dough is pliable. Just make sure the filling is sealed in and any holes in the dough are crimped.
You can deep fry or pan fry. If you pan fry you just need to turn the pies.