The Infamous Nigerian Meat-Pie .....Part 2

Hi Guys!!

Welcome to the second half of our Nigerian meat-pie journey. If you haven't read the first half about how to make the meat filling, go ahead and do that now....don't worry, I'll wait :-)

Now lets get started on the second half of our meat pie.

You'll need

• One stick of room temperature butter 
• 300g of self-raising flour (300g of all purpose flour + 1Tbsp of baking powder)
• 1/2 cup of cold water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 beaten egg  (for egg-wash)

Some other items you'll need are:

• A rolling pin
• A large cookie cutter (or a small plastic cup or anything you can use to cut out circles from the dough)
• A clean and dry work surface
• A knob of butter to grease the baking tray
• A baking tray
• A clean bowl
• A pastry brush
• A fork
• A teaspoon

Instructions

1. In the clean bowl, combine the flour, salt and black pepper together. Then add the softened butter.
   
2. Using your fingers, rub/massage the butter into the flour/dry ingredients. Make sure that the butter doesn't remain visible, but has been worked into the flour. After doing this, it should come together when pressed in your palm, and just crumble away.
3. Gently/ gradually add some of the cold water into the flour mixture, folding it in with a spatula (I prefer to use my hands though), as you do, until it forms a dough. 
   
4. Kneed the dough on a floured work surface for about 3 minutes, until you are comfortable with it. Then allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. Using the knob of butter, grease the baking tray and set aside.
6. Flour the work surface, and using the rolling pin, roll-out the dough. Use the cookie cutter to cut-out some circular shapes with the dough.
   
   
   
   
7. Now, using a teaspoon, take some of the meat filling, and place it in the centre of the cookie-cut dough. 
   
8. Place your index finger in the egg wash and rub it round he rim of the cookie-cut dough. This would act as the glue.
9. Take the second end of the dough and fold it over the meat filling. Press the fork around the edges to seal the other end in place. 
   
10. Transfer the sealed meat-pie onto the greased tray and repeat the process until you've exhausted all the filling and dough.
    
11. Using the pastry brush, brush the egg wash onto each meat pie  on the tray (this gives the pie its signature golden brown colour).
12. Transfer the tray into the pre-heated oven, and allow it to bake for 12-15 minutes.
13. Once its golden brown and done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a while.
    

Tips

• Be careful not to add too much water into the flour mixture, as this can change the consistency of your dough, and make it  quite soggy. If that happens, you'll need to add some more flour.
• Try to roll the dough out thinly (not too thin that it begins to tear off when sealed ohh!), but just thin enough so that as you bite into it, you don't have a mouthful of pie without the meat. Theres nothing worse that chewing on a doughy meat-pie.