Pastelitos de carne will always take me back to the many Cuban parties I lived through growing up. They came on a white styrofoam tray, wrapped in yellow cellophane, alongside their sisters croquettas, bocaditos, and delicious appetizer treats of the such. Making them might be slightly labor intensive, but so easy and so worth it. Make some ahead and enjoy for breakfast in the morning with a nice cafecito!
Pastelitos de Carne
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1 cup red bell pepper, diced
- 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp oregano
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 Ib ground beef
- 5 oz can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup green Manzanilla olives, sliced plus 2 tbsp brine
- 1 package puff pastry sheets, thawed
- 1 large egg + splash of water
- 1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water
Prepare
- First, take the frozen pastry dough out of the freezer at least two hours before cooking, or a day ahead of thawing in the refrigerator.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Make sofrito for the picadillo by adding heating a pan with 1 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and add the onions and bell pepper. Saute for about 5 minutes then add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
- Next, add the tomato paste, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper to taste, and 2 bay leaves and stir.
- Then add 1/2 cup dry white wine, 1 lb ground beef and mix breaking up all of the ground beef and stirring to brown all of the beef.
- Add tomato sauce, 1/2 cup Manzanilla olives and brine and cook while occasionally stirring for 10 more minutes.
- Off the heat, and set the picadillo off to the side.
Assemble Pastelitos
- Flour your surface where you will be working with the puff pastry sheets. Flour the top of the pasty sheet and slightly roll it out. Punch out circles of your desired size, I used a 1.5 inch circle cutter. Lay all of the bottom pieces on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, 12 pastelitos per sheet.
- Rim each dough disc with water on the perimeter with each one. Put a teaspoon of picadillo at the center of each. Top each one with the additional circle cut outs and pinch the edges to seal. Take any leftover dough and roll it out to cut out more circles as needed.
- Brush the top of each pastelito with egg wash. Place both sheets in the oven and bake for 11 minutes, rotate the sheets, and then bake for another 11 minutes.
- In the meantime, heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan on high heat until it begins to bubble. Cook like this for about 4 minutes, off the heat, and set aside until the mixture has a syrup-like texture.
- Finally, when you remove the pastelitos from the oven, brush each one with the simple sugar syrup and serve. If you still have more dough and picadillo continue to make more until you’re all done. Enjoy!
