Kenyan meat pie

delicious Kenyan meat pie 

Tasty Kenyan meat pie 

💥💪💪👍

These African meat pies have a flaky and buttery crust that crumbles in your mouth. The filling is moist, loaded with minced beef, potatoes, carrots, and scallions.  The combination of thyme, garlic, white pepper and cayenne pepper takes these pies to the next level.  

Ingredients:

• 1 kg all-purpose flour
• 500 g cold unsalted butter
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 3 tbsp sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup cold water or milk
• 500 g minced beef
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
• 2 scallions (finely chopped)
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 medium carrot (finely diced)
• 2 medium Irish potatoes (finely diced)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp bouillon powder
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 cups water
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk

Method:

Instructions for Making the Pie Filling.

• In a medium saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion and fry till light golden brown.
• Add the garlic and stir for an about one minute.
• Follow by adding the white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, bouillon powder and stir for a few seconds.
• Add the ground beef and start breaking the chunks. Fry till lightly brown stirring constantly.
• Next, add the potatoes, carrots and the water. Stir well, cover and bring to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft. By this time, the liquid would have almost dried out, but there should still be a bit of the stock.
• Add in the one tablespoon of flour and stir well. Let it cook for one more minute. This process will help to thicken up the bit of stock that is still in the filling resulting into moist pies after baking.
• Incorporate the scallions. Mix everything very well and set aside to cool down.

Instructions for making the dough

• Start by beating the two eggs in a small bowl and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
• Add the cold butter to the flour mixture and mix well with the fingertips till the butter is well incorporated, and you have a breadcrumb-like consistency.
• Mix in the beaten eggs and the water and combine to form the dough.
• Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead shortly for about 1 minutes until smooth. Don’t overwork it though because the result will be unpleasant.
• Cover the dough with a cling wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Instructions for Assembling the African Meat Pies

• In a small bowl, beat the egg well in advance and set aside.
  
• Divide the dough into four equal parts.
• On a floured surface, roll out one piece to about 1/8 inch thickness.
• Using a pie cutter or any round shaped utensil, cut out circles from the rolled dough. Remove the excess dough left around them and set aside for later use.
• Place a tablespoon of the filling in the middle of each circle.
• Cover each circle to form a half-moon-like shape. Seal the edges with your hands first and then press with a fork. Alternatively, if using a pie cutter, you will skip this part because the pie cutter automatically takes care of this step.
• Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.
• Place all the pies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Poke a few holes on top of the pies as this will help in releasing the pressure while baking them.
• Proceed to brush the pies generously with the egg wash.
• Finally, bake in preheated oven at 200°C for about 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown.
• The African Meat Pies are ready.