Back in April, I was inspired to make some meat pies after seeing someone on Twitter make some using this Tobi Smith recipe.

I had some issues with following the recipe because I felt there were some gaps in the instruction. For instance, if I’d never baked pastry with cold hard butter before, I would have been dumbfounded on how to combine cold hard butter with flour. PS: I used a food processor. 

I also struggled with finding alternatives to a dough cutter to cut perfectly shaped circles. I learned the hard way that the smooth edges of a bowl make it a terrible candidate, whereas a pot is much better, but ultimately a dough press set is ideal and so I bought one.

I made the meat pie a few more times since April and tried different techniques to improve the pastry so I could write up this meat pie recipe. 

For the meat part of this recipe, I followed the original recipe but I found that the original recipe gave me enough meat for 36 meat pies!! (cause I used that batch 3 times). I must add that meat pie is without a doubt, the hardest thing I’ve made. It’s labour intensive and takes a long time. 

Ingredients

This recipe makes 12 meat pies

Filling

• 500 grams of ground beef (you’ll have a little extra but more is always better)

• 1 medium-size onion, chopped

• 3 potatoes, chopped uniformly (4 if they are small)

• 3 carrots, chopped uniformly (4 if they are small)

• Salt 

• Black pepper

• Curry

• Thyme

• Ginger

• Garlic powder

• 1 Maggi Naija pot

• ¾ cup of cold water

• 1 ½ teaspoon flour

Dough

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 200g cold unsalted butter

• 2 ½ cups flour

• ¾ cups cold water

• ¼  cup of flour, separated

• 1 egg

Method

1. Simmer the meat and onions on high heat with the seasonings, reducing the heat to a medium heat as it browns. 

2. Stir until it’s almost cooked through then add your potatoes and carrots and reduce the heat a little bit more.

3. Cook covered (so that the steam helps to soften the veggies) for about 10 minutes until the carrots are soft, stirring occasionally.

4. Stir the 1 ½ teaspoon of flour into the cold water to make a slurry and then pour this into the meat mixture.

5. You can take this off the heat now and set it aside to cool.

Tip: Add one teaspoon each of the seasonings to start. Before you add the veggies, taste and adjust. Then taste again before adding the flour slurry.

Dough Method

There are two ways to make the best flaky buttery meat pie pastry: food processor or grater. I prefer the food processor but I’m going to write both so you can do either depending on which equipment you have.

1. Both processes start with combining your salt, baking powder and flour in a large bowl with a whisk.

2. Put your flour mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes.

3. Adding the butter

   1. If using the food processor, cut your butter into small cubes

   2. If using a grater, grate your butter into your bowl of flour being very careful because as the butter warms in your hand it will become more slippery. To avoid this, hold the butter in the foil wrapping and not directly with your hands

4. Combining the butter 

   1. If using a food processor, add the flour and butter into your food processor and pulse it about 10 times or even less till it looks like rough sand with butter chunks of different sizes

   2. If using a grater, combine the grated butter into the flour mix with your hands being careful not to warm the butter with your hands. You want everything to bind together but you still want streaks and blobs of butter in the dough

5. Add the water, a quarter cup at a time, until everything is combined and you have a ball of dough that feels a tiny bit sticky.

6. Wrap in cling fling and refrigerate for 10 - 30 minutes (or until you’ve relaxed a bit and are ready to continue).

   The extra ¼ cup of flour is added while rolling because I found that when I used three cups of flour it was too dry and needed more water. However, I eyeballed it once with just over 2 cups and it was great. So I reserve the extra cup and incorporate it while rolling if I sense it’s too wet. 

7. Bring the dough out of the fridge, and on a floured surface, roll the dough about as thick as an iPhone. 

8. Dust flour unto the surface of the dough that is facing up, pick it up and flip it around gently

9. Roll the dough to about ¼ of an inch of thickness (see image in gallery below for guidance) and dust it with flour again if it still feels a little wet. 

   1. Roll the dough gently without overly dragging so the dough doesn’t get warm and thus melting the butter 

   2. Place pieces of dough in the fridge if you’re not using them immediately

10. Cutting the dough: Using a dough press set, a pastry cutter or the knife method described below cut your dough into circles. 

11. Fill each piece with about 1.5 ice cream scoops of meat.

12. Use your fingers to spread a little beaten egg (or water) on the edges before you close the dough on itself cause it will help it bind. Seal using the dough press or a fork.

13. Refrigerate your meat pies for about 10 minutes before baking.

14. Make an egg wash by combining 1 egg with a splash of milk/water.

15. Using a pastry brush, brush the surface of your meat pies with the egg wash so that it browns nicely.

16. Poke with a fork to create vent holes for the steam to escape while baking.

17. Bake on a lined baking tray for 35 minutes at 175 celsius (350 Fahrenheit).

Tips

1. I use a dough press set to cut the rounds, but if you don’t have one of these or a pastry cutter, don’t use a bowl because the edges are rounded and aren’t sharp for cutting.

2. Instead, make rectangular meat pies by using a knife to cut a square that’s roughly 8 inches by 8 inches. Put the meat on one side and close the meat pie on its self and use a fork to seal the edges.

3. When cutting the square don’t drag the knife through the dough, press down and apply pressure to cut and lift up the knife.

4. The salt in the dough is not optional, without it, the dough tastes very very bleh.