Michigan Pasties

Talking with my mom and she told me about having pasties when she was little and loving them - can't remember why we were talking about pasties hahahah, kind of a random topic. Anyway...she found this recipe online and I said I'd give it a try. I've eaten my fair share of them but have never made them - not gonna lie, they took longer to make than I anticipated, but it just so happens I have lots of time since we are still 'staying home' and turns out it was well worth the time and energy. These are great! I shared some with my sister, who is going to review them later and I'll update when she does, but spoiler alert - I already know she also loved them. (Click here for her review)

Mom emailed me the recipe and had this to say about them: 

We had a neighbor Mrs Christie who lived in the farmhouse across the street (I think she was English) who always brought us over “pasties” that I still remember being the best thing ever. She was very old with a bun and always had a long apron on, I got in trouble for crossing the street to go visit her. Thanks for helping me find a good memory from childhood!

UPPER PENINSULA PASTIES

Ingredients:

crust ~

• 2 cups shortening
• 2 cups boiling water
• 5 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt

filling ~

• 6 medium potatoes (about 3 pounds), peeled, chopped into 1/4" cubes
• 1 large rutabaga (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled, chopped into 1/4" cubes
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground turkey
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped into 1/4" cubes
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to finish
• 2 teaspoons pepper, plus more to finish
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, stir shortening and boiling water until shortening is melted. Gradually stir in flour and salt until a very soft dough is formed; cover and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
2. Combine ground beef and turkey, break into small crumbles. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, rutabagas, onion, meats, and seasonings.
3. Divide dough into 12 equal portions. On a floured surface, roll out 1 portion at a time into an 8" circle. Mound 1 generous cup of filling on half of each circle; dot with 1 teaspoon butter. Moisten edges with water; carefully fold dough over filling and press edges with a fork to seal.
4. Place on uncreased baking sheets. Cut several slits in top of pasties. Brush the tops with beaten egg, sprinkle tops with coarse salt and pepper. Bake at 350' until golden brown, about 1 hour. Cool on wire racks. Serve hot or cold. Store in the refrigerator. 

my notes: In the comments section people were complaining that 'traditional' recipes don't use ground meat but for whatever reason once baked these didn't seem like hamburger to me. I questioned the recipe when I realized the meat didn't get cooked first, it goes raw in the filling and then baked for an hour - thought to myself 'why doesn't the grease from the ground meat seep out?', but it didn't. Also, this makes 12 very large pasties - so big I didn't even eat a whole one for dinner. The recipe states 1 1/2 to 2 cups of filling in each one, but I found a generous 1 cup was perfect. The first one I made I rolled out too thin and used more filling, it was hard to move to the baking sheet, and wasn't pretty - I got better after that. Only roll to an 8" circle, I use a measuring tape to keep them the right size. 

I adapted the recipe a bit and am sharing what I did, click the source below for the original recipe if you want.

recipe found at tasteofhome.com

I took lots of photos to walk you thru the steps:

1. cut the veggies into a small dice, crumble up the raw meat as best you can. you need a very large bowl for this step. 

 

2. I weighed the dough and then figured out how big each portioned piece should be. Each of the 12 pieces was just a touch over 4 ounces

   

3. roll out the dough to an 8" circle, put a generous 1 cup of filling on one half, moisten the edges of the dough to help it seal. I do this by dipping my fingers in a cup of water and running my fingertips along the edge.  

 

 

 4. fold the dough over the filling, press the edges together then crimp with the tines of a fork. put on a baking sheet, cut a few slits in the top, brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper.

 

5. I wasn't sure how to reheat these, the crust won't be crispy if microwaved - so we did an experiment. Jen did oven at 300' for half hour, I did 350' for 20 minutes, and Cathy did 400' for 10 minutes. All 3 worked! 

see what I mean about size? It's bigger than the dinner plate!

 

 I wrapped them individually, put in freezer bags and popped into the freezer for another time. Can't say how they'll hold up doing it that way but since this recipe made so many and they're so big, we can't eat them all at once hahahah!