THE BEST MEAT PIE FOR BEGINNERS

MEAT PIE

Meat pie is a meat and vegetable filled pie sometimes prepared for events or leisure.

FOR THE DOUGH

• all purpose flour (3 cups). Produces about 10 pies
• baking powder (1 tbspn)
• 1 egg
• 150g softened unsalted butter
• water or milk
• maggi (optional)
• sugar (optional)
• salt (a pinch)

FOR THE FILLING

• meat 
• carrot
• green peppers, onions or spring onions
• thyme, curry, salt, black pepper(grounded)

PROCEDURE

FOR THE DOUGH

• seize flour in a bowl
• add baking powder, egg and butter. start adding water or milk gradually till a hard sticky dough is formed. Be careful not to add to much water  or milk. Use cold water for this, cold water will result in a crispy dough and add quite enough butter as this will determine the softness even after it has cooled, One time i forgot to add butter and when i remembered i quickly added as much as this my tiny hands could scoop and i tried kneading it into the mixture, The pies turned out to be hard after it cooled. Definitely not rock hard but then not soft. lol Please don't be like me add butter. For 3 cups of flour (500g) use 250 g of butter. For 250g of flour (1 1/2 cups) use 150g of butter. The amount of butter will be half of the amount of flour.
• keep in a refrigerator for 30 mins

FOR THE FILLING

• beat your meat with a knife until it's small or in pieces. If you have the machine you can just put the meat in he machine and it'll turn out chunky and very minute. Boil the meat for 5 mins, add all your spices
• slice all your green and add it to the meat then shimmer for 3 mins, Add a little flour this is to make the filling stay together and nit scatter when working with it.
• bring down and allow to cool off as we can't work with hot fillings.

• Cut the dough into equal pieces and start rolling it out piece by piece until flat. Place a plate on top of the dough and cut out the excess dough, put the filling in the middle the cover and press down with the back of a fork or if you have a meat pie cutter just place the dough on top of the cutter and put the filling in the middle then press down the cutter to seal the edges and remove the excess dough then gently bring out the pie and put in the already oiled pan.
• After exhausting your dough and filling put in the already pre-heated oven and keep the heat to a stable 200 degrees Celsius to prevent the pies from getting hard. Trust me you do not want any chance of getting hard pies it doesn't speak well of a baker.
• The pies would be ready in about 30-35 mins so keep checking it after every 10  mins until you see a golden brown pie. Bring out the pies and allow to cool outside the oven this is also to prevent it room getting hard lol
• Enjoy with hot chocolate or juice. if you don't have juice just drink water.