Root Vegetable Pasties (and Meat Pasties too!)

Dave asked the other day if there is a season for pasties (do you know what a pastie is? Basically a handheld meat pie) and I said I didn’t think so, I think they’re year round. Then a couple days later Mark sent me a recipe for pasties hoping I’d make them haha. You might remember that I already made and posted a recipe for Michigan Pasties, I’m going to repost that one and then give you the recipe Mark sent so you have variations if you want to make them. 

Here’s the original post from May ‘20:

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!

Now for the recipe Mark found at MyNorth.com for Root Vegetable Pasties - I have not made them yet but they sound great! I’m just copy and pasting right from their site:

Root Vegetable Pasty Recipe

Makes 8 supper-sized pasties

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling out the dough
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1 small rutabaga, peeled and diced
• 1 pound any other mixed root vegetables—carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, waxy potatoes or radishes— peeled and diced
• 1 green Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 cup diced red onion, about half an onion
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large, 10.5-ounce log goat cheese, crumbled
• Leaves from 8 thyme sprigs
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 egg, gently beaten with a fork

Root Vegetable Pasty Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and 1⁄2 teaspoon salt. Place pieces of cold butter in the bowl and work it into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until well incorporated. If any pearl-sized pieces of butter remain, pinch them between your fingers until they break down and disappear into the flour, working quickly so the mixture doesn’t warm.

2. Place a few ice cubes into a liquid measuring cup and fill it with cold water to the 1-cup line. Add small amounts of cold water to the flour mixture, kneading it with your hands as you go. Add more water just until the dough sticks together to form one ball, knowing you may not need the entire cup. Working on a lightly floured surface, knead the dough with the palms of your hands briefly, just until the dough is one cohesive unit.

3. Break the dough into 8 equal-sized pieces and form into individual balls. Press down on each ball with the palm of your hand to form a disk the size of a hamburger patty.
Wrap each disk with plastic wrap, place the wrapped disks in a sealable plastic bag or container and set them in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to 3 days.

4. Meanwhile, peel and dice the rutabaga, root vegetables, apple and onion and add them to a large bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil, season with the remaining 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt and toss with your hands to evenly coat.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, line two baking sheets with parchment paper and remove the dough disks from the refrigerator. Working over a lightly floured surface, roll each ball out until it is 8 inches in diameter, about the size of a salad plate. Divide the root vegetable mixture evenly among each circle of dough, placing about 1 cup onto one half of each disk. Distribute the goat cheese and thyme leaves evenly among all 8 pasties and top each heap of vegetables with a few twists of freshly ground black pepper.

6. Carefully fold the empty half of the dough over the top of the filling, tugging it gently to get it to stretch over your colorful pile of root vegetables and meet the other edge. Press the two edges together with your fingers to seal. Working with your thumb and forefinger, press overlapping folds of dough along the edge of each pasty and place the pasties on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Using a pastry brush, paint both the top and crimped edge of each pasty with the beaten egg, and place the baking trays in the oven. Bake for 50 minutes, swapping the location of the two baking sheets halfway through baking, until pasties are a deep golden brown. Allow the pasties to rest until they have cooled enough to handle, hand them out as you fly out the door and eat on the run.

ADVANCED PREPARATION: Dough can be made in advance and kept refrigerated for 2 to 3 days. Assembled pasties can be individually wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen until you are ready to bake them

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