Pumpkin Hand Pies

*shamefully enters Blog draft... Hiiiiiii.....

*sigh...Back from the Blog dead.. its been over a year, OMG really? Yea.. first year blogger FAIL for sure, humbly admitting I sorely underestimated how time consuming it is.. and its been... quite an interesting year, but I'm back baby! Now when I can say that for the rest of my life...I'll let you know! HA! Curiouser and Curiouser! I'm stacked and ready with lots of wonderful info and fun holiday projects for you all and I aim to be better at this..swearsies. Enough chatter nobody cares BECAUSE IT'S HALLOWEEN/SAMHAIN/FALL SEASON WOOHOO!! Who's got parties and hungry guests!? Ready go.

These Pumpkin Hand Pies are pretty simple, delicious for breakfast, snack OR dessert, and are QUITE adjustable to taste and complimenting meal. You can also substitute with other fillings and really go places with it. My 13 year old twin daughters and I LOVE to bake, and try to get as artistic as possible. These heart warming babies are a more rustic and "Grandma's kitchen" in presentation, and are a fun and fairly simple making them wonderful for young children as well, and even the not-so-savvy baker can handle these no problem! Side note: Its also a wonderful kind of FUN messy that makes for a great cold winter day activity and in my house..inevitable flour fight that I never mind cleaning up...they grow up so fast...ONWARD!! To the cabinets!

**Remember true to tradition I share all recipes as they were taught to/given to me, down to the last sugar grain short of family secrets. I put in Vegan options when I have discovered one...this one is SO SIMPLE to make Vegan, and tastes just a good!(which all Vegans/plant based folks know RARELY happens....lets be honest) Another Pumpkin Hand Pie perk!

INGREDIENTS:

*For The Dough:

- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp table salt

- 1 cup salted butter, diced and chilled (use vegan butter..BOOM!)

- 1/2 cup VERY COLD ice water

- 1 egg, beaten w/ two tsp water for egg wash. (I found vegan butter and almond milk brushed on top crisped the crust and had a very similar response as an egg wash..just keep it LIGHT..don't SOAK your crust)

- Raw sugar for sprinkling

*For The Filling:

- 1 cup 100% pure pumpkin puree or homemade (Did someone say pumpkin carving guts!?)

- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

- 2 TB granulated sugar

- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp Cloves

- 1/4 tsp Ginger

All adjustable to taste of course, These are semi-sweet but not DECADENT sweet, so your desires can be created to your liking. I sometimes leave out the cloves and ginger and make these a bit sweeter for my sugar monsters.

*For the Glaze:

- 1/2 cup powdered sugar

- 1 TB whole milk (Almond milk served me just as well here, soy tends to argue in baking and we also Don't drink Soy so, let me know how it works for you!)

- 1/8 tsp Cinnamon

- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg

- 1/8 tsp Ginger

- 1/8 tsp Cloves

Again all to taste..make it what you want it!

DIRECTIONS

1. Make The Dough:

-In a large bowl whisk together flour and salt

-then cut in the diced cold butter into your mixture, smaller bits...there will be some chunks of butter still visible. (Note: I use a hand or "fist" slicer and give it a good dice and thrashing to get it to a "coarse crumbly texture" before proceeding.)

- 1 Tablespoon at a time, add ice water to mixture until it holds together. *it should stick together when pinched but not be "sticky".

-Work dough with cool fingers being careful not to overwork, form two dough balls, wrap them in plastic and chill for at least ONE hour.

2. Make The Filling: Brace yourself this one is tough...

- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until well combined.

*Mic Drop

3. PREHEAT oven to 400F, placing the rack in the middle position (preferably BEFORE you turn it on...safety kids) Line some baking sheets and grab that chilled dough.

-On a lightly floured surface, (be strong, flour fight later..) roll out your dough balls to about 1/8 inch thick.

-Use a 5-6 inch bowl rim or large circle cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can, re-roll dough as needed and get as many as you can. (the last one is always a sad sight...we call that a chef snack and it must be devoured before anyone witnesses the horror)

-Load with 2 TB of your Pumpkin filling masterpiece in the center of each circle.

-Moisten (*cringe) the edges and fold over, using fork to crimp and seal the edges.

-Cut slits on the top of each one, brush with egg (or not egg) wash and sprinkle with sugar. (given the glaze, i usually omit this sugar as a I find it unnecessary, but you may enjoy the texture!)

-Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 25 minutes (I check EVERYTHING with less than a 30 min cooking time at 15 min.. keep that, ESPECIALLY with cookies or small pastries) or until golden brown and your neighbors start asking about the awesome smell coming from your house!

4. MAKE GLAZE AND GLAZE ON:

-Mix all ingredients together until they are smooth and you have your desired consistency, adding more powdered sugar for a firmer hardening glaze, more milk for a drippy drizzle!

AAAAAAND, being sure you've let that pumpkin lava inside there cool, FEAST!! Let me know how you like it!? Have any insight for me that'll make it better! DO INDULGE ME!! And please DO post and tag @namaste_and_skulls on Instagram, all your N.a.S. cooking adventures and, if your account is public, I'll feature your yummies in my stories!!! I hope this warms your home and fills your belly! I found Ginger Beer to be simply AH-MAY-ZING with these, and they are sure to be a pleaser at Thanksgiving, Halloween Parties or WHEN EVAH!!

-Thanks for hanging out with me, Namaste.