Jamaican Beef Patties

Jamaican Beef Patties are a tender pastry holding a deliciously moist and spicy beef filling and you CAN make these at home!

I had a craving for some of these beef patties and I chose to use the below recipe after, after a google search, with some adaptations to the pastry.

Jamaican Beef Patties

adapted from eat jamaican.com

Pastry
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 coconut oil
1/4 cup (1/2) stick butter
1/3 cold water, up to 1/4 cup extra

1) Whisk the flour, curry powder and salt in a large bowl (or in your stand mixer).
2) Cut in the coconut oil and butter until crumbly.  Add the cold water to bring the pastry together.
3) Cover tightly in plastic wrap and thaw in the fridge for at least 15 minutes or overnight.

I chose the overnight option, because I was tired and felt that the dough needed some help from the refrigerator to come together better.  The stand mixer makes a huge different in cutting in the fats and I was quite pleased with the results.  The dough had those perfect pea size crumbles that most pastry recipes call for. It was rather exciting! I'm not very good at pastry and with the help of the stand mixer, I think I'll be good to go!

I chose to use coconut oil instead of shortening because, 1) I didn't have shortening and 2) coconut oil has health benefits that shortening does not.  Coconut oil is an amazing product with a plethora of uses in food and for body.  More on uses for the body later, but coconut oil is a good source of fat.  I chose to use butter,  because I did not have margarine as the original recipe called for.  I added extra water, because the dough did not look like it was coming together.  Granted, I'm not an expert on pastry and have no idea how it's supposed to turn out, but I felt I needed to add water.

The color of the dough was a lot paler than the beef patties I've eaten, but I'm hoping that as the dough rests  it will take on more of the curry powder color.  I think using turmeric would definitely give the nice bright and orange color, but I did not have that either!  Here's a picture of the dough after it was mixed, but before I wrapped it in plastic.

After an overnight nap in the refrigerator, the dough did take on more yellow color and I was ready to roll! Well, so I thought, the dough was still incredibly dry and crumbly and impossible to roll.  I added yet more water (I think we're up to 1/4 cup more water) and then we were rolling!

4) Roll the dough thin (about an 1/8th of an inch) and cut 8 inch circles.

I used a small bowl to cut out circles and then rolled those circles thinner yet because I don't think I rolled the entire dough thin enough. I wrapped them once more and into the fridge they went to be ready for dinner in the evening.

Somehow, the recipe says you will get 10 patties out of the dough.  I got 5 dough circles, so either the recipe makes too little or I did something wrong.

Look at that nice pale yellow color! Too bad the dough was crumbly at this point

Look at the dough circles, all tucked in ready for another nap!

The recipe for the meat filling from this particular website was decent, but I added my own touches to it as well.  The filling called for a scotch bonnet pepper, which I did not have.  I did have a bell pepper and used that.  Once the onions and pepper were soft I added a sprinkling of cayenne pepper to make up for the scotch bonnet.  I added all of the original recipe's spices, and after tasting decided it wasn't enough flavor.  I added more cayenne (bringing the total to 1 tsp) and pinches of the other ingredients to develop a nice and flavorfully spicy mixture.  I added the flax seed to incorporate some extra nutrition and make it more "abs-diet"* friendly.

Look at those peppers and onions!

Wow! Phone camera actually takes pictures of steam too!






*Abs Diet is a diet method that I've been attempting to follow for months now.  It's a great read!

Meat Filling
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small white onion, Finely chopped 
1/2 red bell pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1lb. lean ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder 
1 tsp flaxseed
pinch nutmeg
pinch ginger
pinch paprika
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup chicken stock
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup water

1) In a skillet, heat the oil and sauté the onion and red pepper until they are soft.   
2) Add the ground beef, salt, pepper, curry powder, nutmeg, ginger and paprika and mix well. Brown and break up the meat for about 10 minutes.  
3) Add the breadcrumbs and stock and combine all the ingredients well. Cover the skillet and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When all the liquids have been absorbed, the filling is ready. It should be moist but not watery. Remove the skillet from the stove and preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Assembly
Uncover the dough circles and place about 1/4 cup of filling. Moisten the edges of the dough with water and fold the dough circle over the meat filling. Pinch the edges closed with a fork. Lightly brush the pastry with the egg wash. Bake on a lightly greased baking sheet for 30 to 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy!

I had leftover meat which I put in a breakfast burrito so breakfast should be delicious in the morning!

Sandwich Bread

Before getting the idea to start a blog, I've tried my hand at sandwich bread several times.  I think I might be up to trial 4 or 5 even!

Sandwich bread, or bread in general is really hard to make perfectly, so why go through the effort? It's about a 4 hour process where as buying a loaf of bread from the store can take about 4 minutes! Who has time for a 4 hour baking process? Well, once you've tasted a homemade slice of bread, then you know why you can make time for the process.

In each of these trials, I've learned something new and applied that to the next loaf. The key things I've learned involve the following:

• Kneading
• Rise Time
• Yeast and liquid temperature
• Flour
• Salt

Well, isn't that just about everything regarding baking bread? Yes! I said it was hard to make perfectly. In each of my trials to date, I've learned that all of the elements are important by themselves and togethernd need to be treated with respect so that everyone gets along!

Kneading
I'm kneading my bread by hand because I don't have a bread machine or a fancy stand mixer.  Kneading by hand is hard work and a great workout for your arms and shoulders!  The technique is difficult to get down and I'm having problems with "knead[ing] the dough until smooth and elastic." What does smooth and elastic mean anyway? You want the dough to be stretchy without ripping. You want to develop the gluten in the flour so that the gluten becomes long strands that make your bread stand up straight.  Still not sure what that means? Me neither which is why this blog exists!

Rise Time
Rise time involves timing and watching the dough until it is doubled in volume.  Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, with bread you can overproof it and that's just not good.  I'm not sure if I've accomplished that yet, but I know that I've had underrisen bread.  Underrisen dough for me has come from killing the yeast.

Yeast and Liquid Temperature
Yeast is a living organism and one that is rather picky.  My recipe called for having the milk and water at 110F.  That's a bit warmer than body temperature.  I nuked my milk and water for 3 minutes and it was well above the right temperature!  In my last trial I took the temperature of the milk and water  to ensure that it was 110F and I believe that made a huge difference.  It also pays to follow the directions of your yeast.  There are several types of yeast and the yeast I have requires it to be mixed with a little water and sugar first.  I had been throwing in the dry yeast with the flour!  My next trial will have the yeast "proofed" according to the package.

Flour
Flour is a tricky ingredient as well. You don't want too much flour and you don't want too little.  In my later trials, I've learned to take the last 1/2 cup flour out of the mixing bowl and using that too knead my dough.  This is to make sure that I don't have too much flour going in the bread.  You don't want a dry loaf after all.

Salt
Salt is also one of those secret little ingredients that doesn't seem like it makes a big difference, but it really does.  In my last loaf, I forgot the salt.  My dough rose beautifully in both rises, but once I put it in the oven and took it out, my bread deflated! After some google sleuthing this was due to forgetting the salt.  Evidently, yeast needs salt to stop growing.  My yeast just kept growing, growing, growing and then popped in the oven.  It was definitely something good to learn.

Best mistake of all?
In my first trial, I forgot the water!  I was mixing the flour with milk and saw that the dough was really dry and I had no idea why.  I added water just because I thought it was dry, but didn't realize until after the bread came out of the oven, that I forgot the water.

Read the recipe and follow it exactly!
It might be tough (it is if you're me), but it will make a difference and that's what I'm trying to accomplish! This the quest for the perfect sandwich bread!