Beef Hand Pies
牛肉餡餅 (Niu Rou Xian Bing)
Beef hand pies are a classic northern Chinese street food, often eaten for breakfast or as a savory snack [1]. Here’s how to make them at home!
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 cup water, boiled
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 scallions, chopped
½ inch ginger, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp Sichuan pepper (optional)
1 egg
Vegetable oil
The dough for the hand pies is a hot water dough similar to that used for dumpling wrappers. Begin by boiling some water. Why boiling water in this dough? Hot water will denature some of the proteins in the flour and prevent as much gluten from forming, resulting in a more pliable dough.
In a large mixing bowl, place two cups of all-purpose flour. Form a well and pour in 1 cup of boiling water, stirring immediately and vigorously with chopsticks or a wooden spoon. Continue stirring until a dough forms. If the dough feels too dry, add some more water—if it is too moist, add flour. At this stage the dough will likely be slightly sticky and somewhat crumbly. Begin kneading the dough together in the bowl, bringing the crumbs together into a single ball. Continue kneading for about 10 minutes, until it is smooth. Cover the dough ball with plastic or a clean tea towel, and let rest for 1 hour. As there is no leavening agent in this dough, no rise will occur. However, the dough will relax and become more elastic, which decreases the chance of tearing when we roll out the wrappers.
While the dough rests, we can make the filling. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, finely diced onion, chopped scallions, minced ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, white and Sichuan pepper, and egg. Mix well, until the filling is homogeneous.
When the dough is rested, form it into a log about 1 inch in diameter and divide it into 8 equal pieces. This dough can dry out quickly, especially when it has been divided into small pieces and rolled thin. Once it dries out, it will crack, making it difficult to wrap anything with them. For this reason, it is important to keep all dough pieces which are not being worked on covered—both the unrolled pieces and the finished wrappers.
Dust a work surface with flour, and roll the pieces out one at a time. To form the wrappers, begin by rolling the small piece of dough into a rough ball between your palms, then flattening it into a puck. Place this puck on the work surface, and place your rolling pin at the center. Roll the pin gently towards the edge, then rotate the puck by 30 degrees or so, place the rolling pin back at the center, and repeat the rolling motion towards the edge. This is easiest with a Chinese or French rolling pin, a small, tapered, wooden rod. The roller-style American pins will not give you sufficient control when rolling. Continue turning the dough and rolling towards the edge until you form a thin circle about 7-8 inches in diameter, with a thickness of about 1/8th of an inch.
To make a pie, place about 3-4 tablespoons of filling in the middle of the wrapper. The traditional disc shape is made by folding the pie in the style of a bun, then flattening the top. If this shape is too difficult for you, simply pinch the dough together in a half-moon shape—it’ll still taste great—just make sure that there is no air inside the pie! To fold them in the classic shape, pinch the edge of the dough with the thumb and index finger of your dominant hand, and, holding the dough, raise your dominant hand so that your thumb is just above the center of the ball of filling. Your dominant thumb will not move from this position until the wrapping is almost done—this will center the pleats. With your non-dominant hand, pinch the wrapper about 1 inch away from where your dominant thumb is. Bring the second pinch of dough close to the first, then quickly grab the second pleat with your dominant index finger. Then grab the next bit of wrapper with your non-dominant hand and repeat. The job of your non-dominant hand is to grab new pleats and bring them to the center, keeping the dough taut to avoid trapping any air. The job of your dominant hand is to accumulate all the pleats, holding them together.
Continue pleating. As you work around the circumference of the dough, turn the pie with your non-dominant hand, rather than moving your dominant hand. Continue until you have gathered up the entire circumference of the pie in your dominant hand. Then, without letting go of the pleats, pick the pie up with your non-dominant hand. Using your non-dominant hand, twist the pie about your dominant index finger in the direction of the pleats for at least one whole revolution (counterclockwise if you’re right handed, clockwise if you’re left handed). This will create a uniform ridge of excess dough, and should result in a small indentation in the center of the pie, where your index finger was. When you are done folding, flatten the top to form the pie into a disc. If at any point you find that the edges of the wrapper have become too dry to crimp together, moisten the edges with some water as you would a dumpling.
You can freeze the pies for long-term storage—simply place them on a parchment or plastic wrap-lined plate in a single layer and freeze. Once they are frozen solid, you can transfer them to a plastic bag and keep the freezer.
If you are cooking the hand pies immediately, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the pies to the pan in a single layer, seam side down, and fry for 10 minutes. Flip and fry for 5 more minutes, or until the dough is cooked through and has become golden brown and crisp. If you are cooking a pie from frozen, treat it like a big potsticker: heat some oil in a pan and place the frozen pockets in the pan. Add about ¼ cup water to the pan and cover immediately. The steam will help thaw the pie and cook the dough. Once all the water has evaporated, uncover the pan and fry the pie on both sides until golden brown and the meat is fully cooked. Serve the hand pies warm.
Substitutions
Pork and lamb hand pies are also common—to make one of the variants, substitute the ground beef for ground pork or lamb. You can supplement or substitute the onion with finely diced bell peppers or grated carrots. The oyster sauce can be substituted for hoisin sauce, which is a bit sweeter and less savory.
[1] Wrapping meat in a portable pastry case seems to be universal human culinary invention. Examples include ancient Egyptian and Greek pies, English pork pies and Cornish pasties, and Latin American empanadas.
Recipe
Prep Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 15 min Total Time: 1 hr 45 min
(+30 min inactive)
Difficulty: 3/5
Heat Sources: 1 burner
Equipment: pan
Servings: 8 pies
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 cup water, boiled
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 scallions, chopped
½ inch ginger, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp Sichuan pepper (optional)
1 egg
Vegetable oil
Instructions
1. Place the flour in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water into the flour, and stir immediately. Continue stirring vigorously until a shaggy dough forms. Adjust the amount of water as necessary.
2. Form the dough into a ball and knead for 10 minutes, until smooth. Then let rest, covered, for 1 hour.
3. While the dough rests, make the filling. Combine the ground beef, finely diced onion, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, pepper, and egg in a large bowl. Mix well to combine.
4. Shape the rested dough into a log, then cut into 8 equal pieces, dusting them with flour so they do not stick. Cover the pieces with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel.
5. Dust your work surface with flour and roll the pieces out one at a time into rounds of 7-8 inches in diameter, and a thickness of about 1/8th of an inch.
6. To wrap, place 3 tbsp of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Pinch the wrapper together to form a pleat, then fold again to form another pleat. Continue until you have worked your way around the entire bun, then twist the pleats together to make a tight seal. Flatten to form the pie into a disk. Repeat until all pies are folded.
7. To cook, heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the pies to the pan in a single layer seam side down. Fry for 10 minutes on the first side and 5 minutes on the second side, or until the pie is cooked through and crisp.
