Caribbean: Jamaica: Jamaican Authentic Flaky Beef Patties

Ingredients for the beef patty pastry dough using beef suet:

450 grams all purpose flour 3 1/2 cups

4 grams salt 1 teaspoon

13 grams granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

100 grams beef suet 1/2 cup chopped into pea size pieces and frozen

100 grams shortening 1/2 cup

30 grams turmeric powder 2 tablespoons

230 grams ice cold water

 

Ingredients for beef patty pastry dough using butter:

450 grams all purpose flour 3 1/2 cups

4 grams salt 1 teaspoon

13 grams granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

220 grams unsalted butter 1 cup or ( 2 butter sticks)

30 grams turmeric powder 2 tablespoons

230 grams ice cold water

 

Ingredients to make the beef patting meat filling:

450 grams lean ground beef 1 lb

1 large size yellow or red onion finely chopped

60 grams fresh escallion scallions 3 stalks finely chopped

25 grams Scotch bonnet pepper 1 pepper or use any hot pepper

50 grams breadcrumbs 1/2 cup

3 grams salt 3/4 teaspoon

4 grams paprika 1 teaspoon

2 grams black pepper 1/2 teaspoon

2 grams thyme 1 teaspoon

2 grams all spice 1/2 teaspoon

60 grams unsalted butter 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup

250 grams one cup water

30 grams Olive oil (2 tablespoon

8 grams Garlic minced 2 cloves

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

 

Instruction on how to prepare beef patty filling:

Set stove to medium low setting and add the lean ground beef into sauce pan with 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the meat should be submerged in water completely.

 

Cook and simmer meat for approximately 20–30 minutes. Once the meat has absorbed most of the water.

 

Add in the chopped onions, scallions, salt, black pepper, minced garlic, bonnet or sweet peppers, paprika, thyme, and all spice, and stir till well combined. if you need to add some water to the ground meat do so, you don’t want a dry

 

meat, the meat should be juicy.

 

Add in the breadcrumbs slowing and stir to combine mixture.

 

Again just make sure their is enough liquid to absorb the breadcrumb.

 

Add in the butter and combine. Once butter is mixed in, remove beef from heat and set aside.

 

Instruction on how to prepare beef patty pastry dough:

To make pastry

In a mixing bowl with a hook attachment add the all purpose flour, salt, sugar, turmeric powder, suet, and shortening, and mix on low speed until a crumble texture is developed. If you not using suet add the butter instead. The mixture should look like breadcrumb consistency.

 

If you don’t have mixing machine you can cut in the fat using your fingers or with a fork. A food processor will also work with just 6-8 pulses.

 

Add in the ice cold water and mix until ingredients are well combined and the pastry dough slightly developed.

 

Removed dough from mixing machine and wrap in plastic, place into refrigerator for 30 minutes.

 

Instructions on how to assemble Jamaican beef patty:

Preheat the oven to 365F ( 185C)

Remove chilled dough from refrigerator and divide it into 12 equal parts for large patties or 20 equal parts for small patties.

 

Roll eash dough piece into a ball and flatten round using a rolling pin to about 4 mm.

 

For large pieces fill each pastry disc with two to 3 tablespoons of filling around the center of the pastry dough. For smaller patties fill dough with 1 – 1/2 tablespoons of meat filling.

 

Over lap the pastry dough to resemble a half moon crescent and pinch the outer end with a fork to seal the seams.

 

Place the patties onto a lined baking tray and bake in the middle rack for 25-30 minutes or until beef patty is light golden browned.

 

NOTES:

Authentic Jamaican beef patty dough is distinctively yellow due to the high amount of turmeric added to the dough. If the patty color is not important, then you can scale back the turmeric spice to half, this will offset some of the bitterness from the turmeric in the pastry dough.