Mexican Pastelitos Recipes

PASTELITOS DE CARNE (PUFF PASTRY WITH MEAT FILLING)

Steps:

• Follow recipe instructions from my carne molida post.Let meat cool.Note: Although my carne molida recipe calls for potatoes and sofrito, these two can be excluded from the carne molida you make for this dish. You will still end up with delicious picadillo.
• Unfold puff pastry sheet and with a rolling pin roll out to an 1/8 of thinness.Then using a biscuit cutter or cup, cut circles.Brush circles with egg wash.
• Add a tablespoon or more to center of circles.Top with another circle and press down with your fingers all around circle.Brush the tops with egg wash again.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.Serve with hot sauce and hot peppers. Enjoy!

GOURMET PASTELILLOS (MEAT PIES)

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes. Add onion, tomato sauce, olives, sofrito, sazon, garlic, and oregano. Bring to a simmer and cook until mixture thickens, about 15 minutes.
• Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of meat mixture into the middle of a disco. Fold dough over, moisten edges, and press with a fork to seal. Repeat with remaining meat mixture and discos.
• Pour oil into a saucepan and heat over medium-high heat. Fry pastelillos until golden brown and bubbly, about 3 minutes each. Drain on paper towels before serving.

DRIED FRUIT PASTELITOS

Steps:

• To make the filling, combine the dried fruit and 1 1/2 cups water in a pot over medium-low heat and simmer until fruit is almost mushy, 20 to 30 minutes. Add a little water if needed. Drain the liquid. Working in batches if necessary, put fruit and orange juice in a blender and purée until smooth. Return to the pot, add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and cloves or nutmeg, and simmer over medium-low heat until thick and jammy.
• To make the crust, heat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Using your fingertips, rub in the shortening or lard. Make a well in the center and add 4 to 6 tablespoons water, a small amount at a time, and work it into a dough.
• Divide dough in half and roll each half on a lightly floured board to fit a shallow square or rectangular baking pan, about 9 by 12 inches. Line the pan with one sheet of pastry. Spread the fruit mixture evenly over the pastry, leaving a half-inch border. Place second sheet of pastry over the fruit mixture. Cut the pastry edges to just fit inside the rim of the pan. Press the edges of pastry together to seal around the edges. Brush top with milk. Mix 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over the pastry. Poke holes in pastry with a fork. Bake 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into square.

PASTELES

Steps:

• Make the sofrito: Place the chiles, bell peppers, onions, culantro, cilantro, garlic and pimentos in a blender and process until the mixture is fully puréed, scraping the sides of the blender as needed. Refrigerate until ready to use: This can be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated.
• Make the masa: Peel the bananas and plantains: Prepare a mixing bowl or large pot with water. Cut off the ends of the fruits, then use a knife to score and peel off the skin. Place the bananas in the bowl of water as you go so they don't discolor. (The skins can stain, so be careful as you handle them, or wear plastic gloves.) Remove the skin of the yautia with a vegetable peeler and add it to the water.
• Remove the bananas, plantains and yautia from the water and process until smooth: First, in a food processor fitted with the grating disc, shred each ingredient separately, dumping them into a large bowl as you go. Mix the ingredients together in the bowl, switch to the blade fitting, and process the mixture in batches until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl as necessary. The end result should look soft and fluffy like a purée. (Alternatively, you can grate everything by hand on the smallest holes of a box grater.) Transfer the masa to a large mixing bowl. At this point it can be refrigerated for a few hours, covered, while you prepare the pork, or frozen for up to 3 months.
• Prepare the pork: Cut the pork into small, rough chunks about 1 inch long by 1/2 inch wide, trimming away excess tough fat as you go. Place the pork pieces in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir in the reserved sofrito, making sure all of the pork cubes are coated. Let the pork cook, stirring almost constantly, until it starts to release some liquid, about 5 minutes. Add the olive oil and let it cook for a minute or two, then stir in the seasoning packet.
• Let the pork cook for another minute or two, then stir in the olives and their brine, the tomato sauce and the chicken stock or water, and a pinch of salt. Let the liquid come up to a simmer, then cover the pot and reduce the heat. Let the pork cook at a simmer for 30 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through, stirring occasionally. There should be plenty of liquid in the pot at all times, so the mixture looks like soup, not stew. If it looks dry, add stock or water as needed.
• While the pork cooks, make the annatto oil: In a small saucepan, heat the oil and the annatto seeds over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the oil begins to bubble. Lower the heat slightly and let the seeds cook in the oil until the liquid turns a bright pink-red. Turn off the heat and let the seeds sit in the oil until it cools. Strain the oil through a sieve or slotted spoon into a small mixing bowl, discarding the seeds. Set the bowl aside. (If the liquid does not immediately begin to turn red, your annatto seeds are too old.)
• When the pork is done, taste for seasoning, and add more salt if desired, then turn off the heat. Take 2 to 3 cups of the liquid from the pork and stir it into the masa until it is the consistency of thick oatmeal, soft but spreadable. You will still need about 2 to 3 cups of liquid to make the pasteles, so if your pot looks dry at this point, stir in a little water or stock so that you still have plenty of liquid, and taste for seasoning again.
• On a large, clean work surface, set up your pastel-making station: You will need the banana leaves, parchment paper, string, the annatto oil, the pork and its liquid, and the masa. To make each pastel, start with a piece of parchment paper in front of you, one long side closest to you. Use a soup spoon or a pastry brush to paint a very thin smear of annatto oil on the parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch border on the top and bottom and 4 inches on the sides. (This does not have to be perfect: It's just to keep the banana leaf from sticking.) Lay the banana leaf down on top of the oil, long side closest to you. Paint the banana leaf very lightly with the annatto oil. Spread 1/2 cup of masa on top of the banana leaf about 3/4 to 1/2 inch thick. The masa does not have to be a perfect shape: It can overlap the leaf in places and does not have to cover it completely.
• Spoon a scant 1/4 cup of pork pieces along the length of the masa in a straight line. Your goal is really a line of pork chunks along the center of the masa, so that each bite of pastel has a bite of pork. Add 2 olives to the masa, one near each end. Use a spoon to drizzle on a little more liquid as needed so that most of the masa is covered by a very thin layer of liquid. Don't overdo it: About a tablespoon or so of liquid per pastel is about right.
• To form the pastel, fold the parchment paper in half, from the bottom up, over the masa and filling so the 2 long edges meet. Fold those edges down to meet the edge of the pastel farthest from you. Press the paper down and crease the top edge. Fold the parchment in half again lengthwise from the top down, so it covers the pastel. You now have a long thin pastel wrapped in a tube of parchment, with multiple layers of paper on top. (This needn't be exact, as long as the paper forms a neat little package.)
• Working carefully, use the side of your hand to press and slide the masa on either side of the package into the center to give it a neat edge. Fold in 1 inch of the paper on the left and right sides to create small hems. Then fold both sides over the pastel. (If you have a few leaks, it's O.K.)
• Set this pastel aside, flaps facing downward, while you make its partner: Repeat the process above to make a second pastel.
• When you have 2 pasteles, stack them together so they line up, flaps facing inward. Use 1 piece of string to tie the pasteles together the same way you would a package, looping the string once across the long way and at least once across the short way. Make sure the string is tight and the pasteles are tightly tied together. Repeat this process with the remaining pairs of pasteles. At this point they can be frozen for several months, refrigerated for a day or two, or cooked and eaten immediately.
• To cook them, bring a large pot (or a few pots) of salted water to a boil and add the pasteles, either fresh or frozen, in a single layer. Let cook for 1 hour, or an hour and 10 minutes or so if they are frozen. Repeat with the remaining pasteles, then unwrap and serve right away.

PASTELITOS DE CARNE (CENTRAL AMERICAN MEAT PIES)

Steps:

• On medium high in a large pan, cook the ground beef and drain extra fat. To the cooked beef, add in the rice, cilantro and salt to taste. Cook for about 2 more minutes to heat thru. Set aside and let cool for about 7-10 minute.
• Meanwhile, In a large bowl, mix the masa harina, paprika, chicken bullion and pepper.
• Using a Pastry blender or fork, cut the lard into the masa mix until the masa is crumbly and the lard is pea size or smaller.
• Add the warm water, 1 cup at a time, to the masa and using your hands, mix well until the water is fully incorperated. The masa should not be sticky or dry. If it is sticky add a little bit more masa (1 tspn at a time) or if it is dry add water (1 tbspn at a time).
• Rub a little bit of cooking oil into your hands to make the following step easier. Take out about 2 table spoons of masa and roll into a ball. Using a tortilla press or a rolling pin, make the ball into the size of tortilla but be careful not to roll out to thin. The thickness has to be twice as thick as a tortilla or about the thickness of a pita bread. If it is too thin, the pies will not hold when you stuff them.
• Heat your deep fry oil on a large frying pan on medium high heat (almost high heat).
• Place rolled out dough on a flate surface and add about 2 tablespoons of the beef mixture in the middle. Close in half (creating the shape of a meat pie or half moon). Seal in edges with your fingers and creat small indintations with the end of a fork all around the edge of the pie.
• Before frying, test oil readiness by dropping a small piece dough into the oil. If it automatically sizzles and floats to the top, it is ready. Carefully slide in meat pies into the hot oil and cook about 3-4 minutes per side or until deep golden brown.
• Drain very well on paper towels. You can also slightly press a paper towel against the fried pies to remove excess oil. You can serve whole over a bed of shredded green cabbage or cut in half and serve Sarita's All purpose Tomato Sauce on the side.

PASTELITOS (GUAVA AND CREAM CHEESE PASTRIES)

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Prepare an egg wash: In a small bowl, beat the egg with a pinch of salt and set aside.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll one sheet of puff pastry into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper. (Keep the other puff pastry sheet in the refrigerator.) Dust off any excess flour and lay the rolled pastry sheet on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Dip a pastry brush into the egg wash, and paint a line in lengthwise along the center of the pastry sheet, followed by three crosswise lines, evenly spaced, forming a grid of 8 rectangles, each approximately 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. Brush edges with egg wash. Lay a slice of guava paste in the center of each rectangle (or dot with dollops of jam or preserves, if using). Spread some of the cream cheese, if using, on top of the guava paste (about 1 1/2 tablespoons cream cheese per pastry).
• Remove the second sheet of puff pastry from the refrigerator, and roll it out into an 8-by-11-inch rectangle, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Lay the second sheet of puff pastry on top of the first. Using the side of your palm, press around and between the mounds of filling, pressing out any excess air, and to glue the top pastry to the bottom, creating 8 even, rectangular pockets. Paint the top sheet of puff pastry with egg wash. Sprinkle the surface with sugar.
• Using a knife or bench scraper, cut out and separate the 8 pastelitos following the original grid in between the indentations in the dough. Trim the perimeter to neaten the rectangles. The dough should still be cool to the touch; if it is warm, return the pastelitos to the refrigerator on the baking sheet for 10 minutes to firm up before baking.
• Bake pastelitos until puffed and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

PASTELITOS -- LITTLE FRUIT PIES (SOUTHWEST)

Steps:

• FOR THE FILLING: In a saucepan, put apricots in cold water & simmer gently until fruit is soft, about 30 minutes, then drain.
• In a food processor or blender, puree the apricots, then return the puree to the saucepan, add the brown sugar & cook until puree is very thick, about 8-10 minutes.
• Remove puree from heat, then add raisins & nuts, & set aside to cool.
• FOR THE DOUGH: While the puree is cooling, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder & salt, then cut in the butter & shortening until pea-size pieces form.
• Add just enough ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to make the flour stick together, then shape into a flattened ball, wrap in plastic & refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, then cut the flattened ball in half & roll one of the halves out on a GREASED baking sheet.
• Spread the fruit mixture on top, ALMOST to the edge.
• Roll out the second half of the dough large enough to cover the fruit mixture, then place it on top, before pressing the edges together all around to seal.
• In a small container, whisk together the 1/3 cup of sugar & 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, then sprinkle that on top of the prepared pastry. Finally, with the blunt edge of a table knife, mark the pastry into small squares & prick each square with a fork ~ There should be about 30 small squares marked off.
• Bake about 20 minutes, or until pastry is lightly browned, then cool & cut into the marked squares.

MIAMI GUAVA PASTRIES (PASTELITOS)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly flour a baking sheet.
• Roll puff pastry into a thin sheet on a floured surface. Cut into squares about the length of your hand and place on the prepared baking sheet.
• Beat egg and water together in a bowl; brush each pastry square with egg wash. Stab each square a few times with a fork.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool at least 10 minutes.
• Mix guava paste and jam together in a bowl until smooth.
• Cut a large, vertical slit into each pastry. Spread 1 tablespoon guava mixture into each slit, making sure guava doesn't squeeze out when closed.

MEXICAN PASTELITOS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 2 cookie sheets. Place the butter and superfine sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and cinnamon into a separate bowl, then gradually work dry ingredients into creamed mixture with a wooden spoon. When well mixed, knead until smooth.
• Take 1 teaspoons at a time of the mixture and roll into a ball. place the balls on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake in a preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until pale golden.
• Place the confectioners' sugar in a shallow dish and toss the pastelitos in it while they are still warm. Let cool on cooling racks.