The mini series: meat pies

I still can’t believe I lost my “steamed French bread” post! I don’t know what I did but all of a sudden I only had the first part of the post. I guess that’s what happens when you let your mind wonder while doing things. I was thinking about my mini series. I have so much fun minimizing. Unfortunately this doesn’t make me eat less. I think I’ve gain some pounds just by doing the mini series. You’ve got to taste your creations right? But the good news is that I started running with my co-worker. We try to do it together at least once a week after work and at least one more time by ourselves. I’ve been too occupied with blogging to be running, but I will try. Last year I lost 20 pounds (10 kilos) and after my Asia trip I gained half of it back. So my goal is to loose the weight I gained and maintaining it…minimizing everything will hopefully help.

If you like savory pies you will love these minis. I was lucky enough to make just enough for 24 pies. Just a little warning…make sure you have plenty of time because it takes quite some to make these. I think minis are even more work then the regular sized ones.

For the stuffing I used:

-          1 hamburger

-          1/4 chopped onion

-          1 glove chopped garlic

-          1 teaspoon of garlic powder

-          fresh grounded pepper

-          a pinch of paprika powder

-          a pinch of cinnamon

-          chopped parsley

-          6 finely diced mushroom

-          15cm finely diced carrots

I mixed everything together and let the flavors combine while I made the dough.

I made it with:

-          5 big table spoons of flour

-          2 tablespoon cold butter

-          1 tablespoon oil

-          1 table spoon water

-          a pinch of salt

-          a pinch of Italian dried herbs

I started with crumbling the butter with the flour, the salt and the herbs. When it looks like wet sand I added the oil, mixed it some more and then added the water.

When it no long sticks on your fingers and you can roll it to a ball it should be good to go.

I made 24 little balls and dropped them in each mold. Then I made sure the dough was spread evenly over the bottom and sides. I filled all the molds with the meat mixture and stuffed them as much as I could.

Then I made sure I had enough dough for another 24 balls. Making the top was very time consuming. Since the moulds were very small and I barely had enough dough I had to stretch it out and make it thin enough to cover the meat.

With a little spoon (I used the flat site) I made sure the top connected to the sides sealing the meat in.

In every pie I made a small incision so they wouldn’t puff up.

I baked them in a preheated oven on 160C degrees for 45 minutes. Halfway I notice that there was a lot of grease coming out of the pies so I took them out and use a tissue to soak it all up. Then they went back in.

After they are done I left them to cool on a rack. Of course I couldn’t resist trying one or them.

This is when they just came out of the oven.

And this is one day later. I have to admit…the one day later tasted even better then the one straight out of the oven.

I think me and the hubby had a couple and my little sister finished off the whole batch!