Pastelitos de Carne: Meat Pastries

My mother taught me that throwing away food is a sin. You could only toss it out if it had spoiled or was inedible (i.e. tasted so bad that God would forgive us). I have no problem eating dinner's leftovers for lunch the next day, but someone in my household frowns upon leftovers. Little does he know that the leftovers are served to him in disguise.

If you recall last week I made picadillo. The next day I took leftover picadillo and made papas rellenas.  I still had picadillo leftover which I quickly froze until today. We shall use the remainder of the picadillo to make Pastelitos de Carne.

This is a meat pastry that is sweet.  Sounds like an oxymoron.  Meat in the middle and sugar on top... is it the main course or dessert?  Uh ... let's call it a snack.  Live a little; it's good.  Here we go....

1 package of Pillsbury puff pastry sheets

seasoned ground beef or picadillo

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Non-stick cooking spray

Click on picture above to enlarge.

Defrost your pastry sheets and unfold onto a clean surface

Heat oven to 375 F

Slice each sheet in three along the fold lines.

Cut each of these strips into 2 (traditionally meat pastelitos are round, but we don't want to waste any pastry dough, so we'll make them rectangular)

Beat your egg with 2 tbsp of water

Brush the edges of your pastry rectangles with your egg wash

Place a couple of tablespoon of beef in the center of one rectangle and top with another

Press along the edges to seal

Repeat this process.

Grease a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray or butter.

Place your pastelitos on the cookie sheet

Brush the top of each pastelito with the egg wash.

Bake in oven for 18-20 minutes.

In the meantime, in a small sauce pan heat the 1/2 cup water with the 1/2 cup sugar stirring frequently until syrup consistency, keep it on warm until the pastries are golden

Remove the pastelitos from oven and brush with the sugar syrup. Return them to the oven for another 3-5 minutes.  Let cool.  Enjoy.

You can divide these in half for a party size portion.