For the longest time I had issues achieving the right pie
crust (I mean Nigerian meat-pie). I LOVED the flaky style – (something in between
the American puff pastry and commercial Jamaican beef patty pastry), not the
soft (almost soggy) one, or the hard teeth threatening one (you find at some Nigerian
parties), or the confused sort (a cross between agege bread and buns). Thankfully my bakery owner/baking instructor mum
saw me out of this conundrum. You see she had always told me that:
1.
“Excessive handling destroys the texture of
crust”
2.
“Too much water made crust hard”
3.
“Heat kills the essence of crust”
4.
“Too little butter will get you nowhere”
Unfortunately that meant NOTHING to me until recently.
Because I love to share, I’ll let you in on this secret.
1.
You must use 1part butter to 2 parts flour.
2.
DO NOT over mix
3.
You MUST have lumps (pebble sized) of butter
before adding water - this helps achieve the “flakiness”
4.
Add just enough ICE WATER to bind the pastry
5.
You MUST chill the pastry before rolling. Infact
overnight chilling yields amazing results.
So how did I make these little beauties?
Ingredients:
For crust
1.
2 cups flour – aerated by using a spoon to scoop
into the cup
2.
2 sticks cold butter (I cup) – chopped in small
pieces
3.
Pimento (for flavor and color)
4.
Salt
5.
Small ice water to bind
6.
Eggs -
for egg wash
For Filling
1.
Canned salmon – well drained (watery filling will
make a mess of this snack)
2.
Chopped red onions
3.
Ms. Dash
4.
Salt
5.
Fire roasted red and yellow peppers
6.
Black pepper
7.
Some oil
Method:
1.
Heat up oil and fry onions
2.
Add all other filling ingredients
3.
Cook for about 5 minutes
4.
Leave to cool
5.
Mix butter, pimento, salt, and flour lightly
6.
Make a well in the center
7.
Add water in small portions until pastry binds
8.
Wrap pastry in plastic and leave in the fridge
for 30 mins or freezer for 10 mins
9.
Roll out pastry – using flour to minimize
stickiness
10.
Cut pastry to desired shape
11.
Fill with filling
12.
Seal
13.
Brush egg wash over the pastry for color
14.
Bake in a preheated oven until crust is golden
(in my case almost coral because of the pimento)
15.
Leave to cool
16.
Enjoy!!
