Charmed Meat Pies with Paprika Aioli

We're delighted to welcome back our own Ellery Adams. PEACH PIES and ALIBIS, the third book in her delightful Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries is coming out on March 5th!

By Guest Blogger Ellery Adams

Ella Mae LeFaye of the Charmed Pie Shoppe knows that you’re about done with winter. You’re about done with cold weather and grey skies. Well, here’s a wonderfully tasty, slightly spicy hand pie that will warm you right down to your toes. That’s the magic of  homemade food, isn’t it? It makes you feel cozy and loved and happy.

However, I must warn you: this is the kind of pie that makes a man go weak in the knees. Ella Mae made it for Hugh Dylan, her handsome fireman, and now things between the two of them are really heating up! When Peach Pies and Alibis comes out next week (March 5) you can read all about it! Until then, here's the recipe:

 

Dough

2 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup ice water

Filling

 

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound ground beef chuck

2 large garlic cloves, finely minced

1 onion, finely diced

3 tablespoons tomato paste

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

3 splashes of Tabasco sauce (add more if desired)

1 egg beaten with tablespoon half and half (egg wash)

Paprika Aioli

¼ fresh lemon juice

5 garlic cloves, finely minced

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 ½ teaspoons (sweet or Spanish)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste

1 ½ cups mayonnaise

In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the ground beef and cook until no pink is showing. Add the garlic and onion and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent. About 8 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cayenne, cloves, thyme, and allspice and cook for 3 minutes. Season with hot sauce and let cool. Transfer the filling to a food processor and pulse until chopped.

Preheat the oven to 350° and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. On a floured work surface, roll out each disk of dough to a 12-inch round. (If you don’t want to make the dough by hand, Pillsbury pre-made piecrusts will work just as well). Using a 4-inch biscuit cutter, stamp out 6 rounds from each piece of dough. Brush the edges of the rounds with some of the egg wash and place a rounded tablespoon of filling to one side of each circle. Fold the other half of the dough over the filling and press to seal. Crimp the edges with a fork. Transfer the pies to the baking sheet and brush with the egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown.

While pies are baking, blend together all the ingredients for the paprika aioli. Serve in individual bowls for dipping.

Name the spiciest food you’ve ever tasted! 

And before I go, here's the blurb for Peach Pies and Alibis!

ISBN - 0425251993
Price - $7.99
Available at your local bookstore or Amazon.com, Indiebound.com, Barnes & Noble

Ellery Adams serves up a mystery that’s a real peach...

Ella Mae LeFaye’s Charmed Pie Shoppe is wildly popular in Havenwood, Georgia—which is not surprising since Ella Mae can lace her baked goods with enchantments. The shop’s extraordinary success seems destined to continue when Ella Mae meets an engaged couple who hire her to handle the dessert buffet at their wedding.

But Ella Mae has a lot on her plate. She is also searching for the origin of her magical powers—and hoping to determine if the spark of attraction she feels for the handsome Hugh Dylan is authentic or just her new abilities gone awry.

Then Ella Mae discovers a high-standing member of the community dead, and a wedding guest becomes seriously ill at the event she’s catering. Now she’ll have to use all her sleuthing skills and culinary talents to prove her pies don’t contain a killer ingredient . . .