I was contacted this morning by the representative from Daisy Flour today who attended and judged the Savory Pie Contest last weekend. Apparently there have a lot of requests for pie recipes.
Who am I to deny anyone of delicious pie? Without further ado, I give you my Samosa Pie!
Ok there might be a bit of further ado. It was a pretty complicated process actually so today I’ll post the crust recipe. Tomorrow we will tackle the filling and assembly.
As I was researching the samosa, a traditional snack in India and other Southeastern Asian countries, I found that they are either fried or baked. As much as I’d love to tackle the challenge of frying an entire pie I decided to go with baking. The baked samosa generally is wrapped in a puff pastry dough.
Puff pastry…a challenge in itself.
I’d never so much as purchased pre-made puff pastry dough let alone tried to make it from scratch. And I’d never even heard of whole wheat puff pastry. So I started Googling. And I found this recipe. FYI: it’s quite a long recipe so before you sit down to read it be sure you have a minute.
It has really great pictures that definitely helped me along the way and is peppered with the witty dialogue of the blog’s author, The Barefoot Kitchen Witch.
This particular recipe called for only about a third of the total flour being whole wheat and the rest all-purpose. I decided to go with all whole wheat mainly because of all the five different flours I possess, the Daisy Whole Wheat Pastry Flour was the only organic one I had. The contest called for only organic flours at least half of which was to be Daisy Whole Wheat. And rules are rules!
Just know going in to it that making puff pastry is a lengthy process. This recipe took me nearly four and a half hours. Not all these hours are active as there are many periods of time when the dough is chilling. For this reason I have taken to making multiple batches at once and making them ahead of time.
This dough freezes well and can be kept in your freezer for up to six months. It can take a while to thaw so transfer it from the freezer to the fridge a day in advance. I sincerely hope you are up to this challenge. It really is delicious…when it turns out right.
UPDATE! 11/19/11
I was in such a hurry last night to get the pastry recipe posted that I forgot to mention something that may actually help those who don’t have a solid block of time or the patience to make their own puff pastry.
Make a double batch of regular savory pie dough. And use whole wheat flour.
Yes it’s a shortcut and no it won’t result in the flakey, mouthwatering masterpiece that puff pastry dough would create but I am not immune to those who simply do NOT have the time to make puff pastry dough from scratch. And it will still be excellent dough resulting in an excellent crust!
Get ready to get your hands dirty because I do things the old-fashioned way. I apologize for the lack of pictures. This is a very texty post.
Double Crust Pie Dough
2 ¼ cups flour of your choosing, plus more for dusting
1 pinch kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed
½ cup ice water
1 egg (for egg wash)
splash of water
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Combine flour and salt and stir together with a fork or whisk. Add the butter and toss cubes in the flour mixture until well coated. Then pinch each cube of butter once. After all cubes have been pinched, work the rest of the flour and butter together into coarse crumbs. Work quickly as the heat from your hands will begin to melt the butter. 
Add one or two tablespoons of the ice water at a time until all the flour is moistened and you have formed a ball. You will probably need about six tablespoons of water but feel free to add more as needed. It’s much easier to add more flour to dough that is too wet than the other way around. Dough that is too dry is no fun to roll!
Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap. Press the dough flat to about half an inch in thickness and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for thirty minutes before rolling.
Preheat oven to 425-450. Use an oven thermometer in case your oven runs too hot or too cool.
Remove dough from fridge. Turn on to a floured surface and sprinkle with flour. I like to begin rolling from the middle of the dough making one pass up and one down. Then I lift the dough, make a quarter turn and repeat. Once you get the hang of it, it makes for a pretty quick and even roll out. The dough should be about 16” in diameter.
Transfer the dough to a pie plate by folding it in half or draping it over your rolling pin. To settle the dough in the plate, lift the excess dough and allow it to sink into the sides of the plate. Use your fingers if necessary but avoid pressing the dough into the plate. It should fall in place fairly easily. Once the dough is resting in the plate, load your pie with cooled/chilled filling and fold the excess up to cover the filling. It doesn’t have to be perfect and probably won’t cover the entire pie. It should look a little rustic. Put it back in the fridge for another ten minutes to chill.
Prepare your egg wash and brush your dough generously. Bake the pie for 45 minutes to an hour checking it every 15 minutes. If it starts to look too brown cover it loosely with a foil tent.
Allow it to cool and serve warm. And enjoy!
______________________
Thanks Jared!
321 of 365 for postaday2011
