After a month of quilting posts it’s time for the return of Mexican Monday.

This dinner was the first dinner I made after having my son. My mom was back for two weeks to help out and spend lots of time with her first grandchild, and then we had friends make dinner for us, and I had a couple freezer friendly slow cooker dishes prepared.

It may have been a little ambitious to tackle something this time consuming, but my husband was home and able to help keep our son satisfied. I was able to make the dough and get the sweet potatoes in the oven before needing to feed Wesley. And while he was napping I cooked up the chorizo. Later in the day, after the dough had chilled I started assembling the hand pies. I did have to swap out with Stuart so Wesley could eat – and I am thankful for his help in assembling!

The original recipe suggested using a 5-6″ round cookie cutter and folding the hand pies in half moons. I don’t have a round cookie cutter, so I used a glass – which I do with pierogi. But because there’s more filling in these hand pies than in my pierogi, I wasn’t able to fold them into half moons. So I created full circle hand pies by placing another circle of dough on top of the filling. (Good thing I doubled the recipe!)

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Hand Pies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt, divided use
• 2 sticks butter, cold and cubed
• 1/2 C cold water
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 lb chorizo
• 1/2 – 3/4 C shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 1 egg

Steps:

1. Make the pie crust: In a food processor pulse together the flour and 1 tsp salt. Add in the cubed, cold butter and pulse until it becomes crumbly. Stream in the cold water until the dough comes together around the blade. Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill in fridge at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Poke holes with a fork in the sweet potatoes. Place in oven and bake 40-50 minutes, until soft. Remove and place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside until cool enough to touch. Peel away the skin and mash potatoes. Stir in the cumin, cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp salt. Set aside.
4. In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown chorizo. Breaking up with a wooden spoon. When cooked through, drain fat and set aside.
5. Make egg wash by beating the egg with 1 tsp water.
6. Roll out dough on a clean, floured surface to 1/8″ thickness. Using a cookie cutter or glass cut out circles. Top dough with sweet potato, chorizo, and shredded cheese. Rub egg wash around the edge of the dough and either fold into half moon or top with another circle of dough. Press hand pie closed with a fork. Cut a slit in the top of the hand pie, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
7. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden.

*This recipe is adapted from Kelley at http://www.mountainmamacooks.com/2014/03/sweet-potato-and-chorizo-hand-pies/*