Puff Pastry Meat Bourekas

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Wrapping Dough

1. 1
   Thaw the puff pastry in the fridge overnight, until pliable but still cold.

   Refrigerator

   💡Work with store-bought dough while it's cold: warm puff pastry gets sticky and won't puff in the oven, and phyllo sheets dry out fast, so keep the waiting sheets covered with a damp towel.

For the Pastry Filling

1. 2
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
2. 3
   Add the onion and fry 5–8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent and starts to turn golden at the edges. If it browns too fast, lower the heat.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
3. 4
   Add the garlic and fry about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic brown.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter. Add it only after the onion has softened, over medium heat, and add the next ingredient as soon as it smells fragrant.
4. 5
   Raise the heat to medium-high and add the meat. Press it flat over the bottom and leave it for 2–3 minutes without stirring, until a brown crust forms.

   Stove

   💡Brown ground beef in the pot without pressing it: leave it as one 'cake' for a few minutes until a brown crust forms, then break it into chunks. Deep browning = deep flavor.
5. 6
   Break it up with a wooden spoon and fry for 8–10 more minutes, stirring, until no pink is left and the meat browns.

   StoveWooden spoon
6. 7
   Keep frying another 3–5 minutes, until all the liquid evaporates and the pan is almost dry, so the filling doesn't make the dough soggy.

   StoveFrying pan

   💡When the fried meat is a filling for a pastry, dry it until no liquid is left in the pan and cool it completely before filling. A wet or hot filling soaks the dough from the inside.
7. 8
   Add the baharat, cumin, salt and black pepper and fry another 1–2 minutes, until fragrant.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
8. 9
   Add the pine nuts and mix well.

   💡Pine nuts and other nuts get a deeper flavor when you first toast them 2–3 minutes in a dry pan, until lightly golden.
9. 10
   Remove from the heat and cool the filling completely, about half an hour.

   💡Fill dough only with completely cooled filling: a hot filling softens the dough, makes it hard to seal and makes the pastry soggy inside.
10. 11
    Stir in the parsley.

    💡Fresh herbs and egg go only into a filling that has cooled: that way the herbs stay green, and the egg doesn't cook but binds the filling.

To assemble

1. 12
   Roll out the dough on a work surface and cut into into squares of about 10 cm.

   Knife
2. 13
   Place a spoonful of cooled filling in the center of each piece, fold in half and seal the edges well with a fork.

   💡Seal well and press with a fork all along the edges, and don't overfill: a pastry that opens in the oven loses its filling, and in the fryer it fills with oil.
3. 14
   Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

   Baking panParchment paper

   💡Brush with an egg beaten with a teaspoon of water: the glaze turns shiny and golden, and the sesame sticks to it.
4. 15
   Bake in an oven preheated to 190°C (375°F) 25–30 minutes, until the pastries are puffed and golden underneath too. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.