Strawberry Basil Hand Pies

Since turning 27 (and immediately becoming older, more mature, and grown-up) I have had a few revelations:

1. My hangovers now SUCK. Way worse than ever. I mean, waaaaay worse. Pizza has stopped saving me, which is probably a good thing because....

2. That one slice of pizza from last week.... now likes to make itself right at home on my ass. That is NOT it's home!

3. I have learned that it is that time in my life where I can no longer have everything I want. (At least when it comes to food. In the rest of my life, however, 27 is an ideal age to get EVERYTHING I want.) 

So, with all of my external ass checking and internal soul searching I have learned to just accept that dessert and I are now on a break. In fact, we've gotten a divorce. Yeah, it was that serious.  

But then I realized that there are two things in life that I love even more than dessert... and they are WINE & CHEESE. So in my breakup with desert I've learned how to live footloose and fancy free and enjoy being "single." Because now, this "single" girl, has regular trysts with her two favorite suitors, wine and cheese. (Or "vino y queso" if I'm feeling a little extra slutty).

So, just when I thought I'd finally moved on from desert and was embracing my inner Samantha (she liked threesomes, too, right?) along comes a recipe that just sweeps me off my feet and makes me rethink everything. I mean EVERYTHING. 

Not only are these little pies desert, they go really well with wine (a glass of rose) and cheese (any and all). So now I'm all confused, my world is turned upside down, and thanks to these little pies, this little ginger is ALL HANDS...

Strawberry Basil Hand Pies

Ingredients:

For the crust-

You can make your own crust. I don't. There is perfectly good pie crust at the market that takes 1/48374 of the mess and work and self loathing. I hate making pie crust. It is not something I am good at and I like being good at everything.

For the filling-

3 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

You will also need:

1 egg

Sugar for dusting

garden berries

Method:

In a saucepan, combine all of the filling ingredients and heat until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. The filling should take about 8-10 minutes to get really think. If you stop stirring it will burn or turn hard and nothing will be good. 

Once thick, remove from heat, cover, and set aside. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

On a floured surface, roll out pie dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter, the rim of a glass, or some other circular thing you can find in your kitchen, cut dough into about 4 inch circles. 

Using a pastry brush (or your finger) dab egg wash along the outer rim of 1/2 of the pieces of dough. 

On each egg washed piece of dough, mound a tablespoon or so of filling right in the middle. Place a non egg washed piece of dough on top, making sure the two pieces of dough are "glued" together. Then take a fork and crimp the edges of each pie. 

Repeat this until you are out of dough.... I had leftover filling and a spoon and made that work. Don't judge me. 

Place pies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush each pie with egg wash, poke a few holes in the top to let the steam out, and dust with course sugar. 

Bake 18-22 minutes until the crust is golden and the filling is starting to ooze out.