烘烤馅饼 Baked Meat Pies

I can't say delicious enough; flaky pastry encasing flavor bursting fillings. The first time I had these was in Beijing but they are from Taiwan. There were a handful of shops selling these in Beijing and the line ups were insane when ever we would go but they were well worth the wait.
Now we can make them at home. It was incredibly difficult to get a hold of a recipe for these considering they call it the same name as a million other things and these are less common then the pan fried version just because very few people in Asia have ovens in their homes and only eat them at restaurants. I was very determined to find out how to make these and finally here it is, a recipe. It is basically like making a large 饺子dumpling and then covering it in pie pastry and baking.
To date I have included recipes for Chicken Curry Filling and Black Pepper Beef filling (two of our favorites in Beijing) and I will continue to work on some other fillings. You can experiment with what ever you want to fill them with as well. To get flour closer to the all-purpose flour found in China and Taiwan mix half all-purpose flour and half pastry flour. Flour in the west has a higher gluten ratio.

Make Dough 1
3/4 cup water
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. oil
2 cups flour

Mix water, oil and sugar. Add flour until you have a soft but not sticky dough. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Make Dough 2
3 cups flour
1 cup lard or margarine (if using lard add 3/4 tsp. salt)
3/4 cup ice water (more or less may be used)
2 tsp. vinegar

Place butter or lard in the freezer for 30 minutes then grate using a medium size grate into flour.

After every cup or so of grated butter toss to coat the strings of butter with flour.

This is what it should look like after all the butter is grated and tossed in the flour.

Mix 3/4 cup ice water and vinegar then add a little bit at a time until dough comes together in a shaggy, lumpy ball. Do not mix any more than just necessary to bring it together,  Place in fridge covered.

Prepare filling of Choice
Below are two different filling recipes.

Chicken Curry Filling
2 lbs chicken breast cut in small cubes
2 large carrots, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 inch piece ginger, minced
2 onions, chopped
2 tsp. chili sauce
2 tsp. curry powder
2 tsp. turmeric
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. Chinese five spice
2 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. starch mixed with water to make a thin paste

Heat some oil and fry onions and garlic until soft. Add chicken and stir-fry until cooked through. Add rest of ingredients, except starch, and a little water and cover and cook until carrots are soft.  Add starch/water mixture and stir until ingredients stick together. Chill in the fridge until cold. This is a great curry filling, I have used it in several things including a fast copycat version of this recipe that just uses puff pastry. I have also used it to stuff sushi along with a slice of cucumber and it was fantastic.

Black Pepper Beef Filling

2 lbs. beef tenderloin, cut in small cubes
2 onions chopped

Marinade
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. rice wine
Sauce
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Chinese black vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. starch mixed with water to make a thin paste

Let beef marinate at least 2 hours. Fry onions until soft. Add black pepper and beef. Cook 2 minutes then add sauce ingredients except for starch/water mixture and let simmer until beef is tender. Add wet starch and stir until sauce thickens and coats beef. Cool. Same goes for this filling, great for use in many other recipes. Chill in the fridge until cold.

Form the Meat Pies and Bake Them

Divide dough 1 into 12 pieces. Roll out each dough piece into a 3 inch circle.

Place a rounded 1/4 cup of filling in center. 

Seal the edges together using this technique as demonstrated here but pinch off the excess dough at the top. You want the dough to be as even a thickens around as possible.

Place them sealed side down.

Knead dough 2 until smooth. Dust the counter with flour and then roll out dough 2 into a rectangle about 1/2 inch in thickness then cut into 12 pieces.

Roll out each piece into a square.

 Place one of the pies on top of the square of dough.

Seal the dough using pleats like you did with dough 1. Place on a baking sheet in the fridge and continue with the rest. You want them to stay cold so the butter or lard does not melt.

Place on a greased baking sheet pleated side down and coat the tops with egg wash (1 egg beaten and mixed with a splash of water).

 Place in an oven that has been preheated to 500F then turn down the heat to 450F.

 Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool.

These are great cold, room temperature or hot out the oven. They also reheat well. Great for taking on the road, on a picnic or prepared ahead of time and frozen to be re-heated for lunches. Or, as what usually happens in my home, totally devoured hot out of the oven before the have a chance to see tomorrow.

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