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Cuban Style Pastelitos de Carne made with puff pastry and a delicious Cuban Picadillo filling!
Pastelitos are a delight to behold. They’re perfectly sweet on the outside, crispy, and incredibly savory on the inside. Above all, Cuban style pastelitos are my absolute favorite! Cuban Style Pastelitos de Carne are made with puff pastry and a delicious picadillo filling!
In general, anytime you make Beef Empanadas or pastelitos, it seems like you can never make enough.
My family goes crazy and devours them in a blink of an eye even when I think that I’ve made enough! My sister especially devours my Cuban Style Papa Rellenas, which is another small-bite apptizer and family favorite!
As many of you know, I’m half Dominican and half Cuban. This makes me lucky to enjoy some seriously delicious Caribbean – Hispanic food. Dominican and Cuban pastelitos are vastly different.
In fact, growing up I never referred to delicious meat pies that my grandmother made as empanadas. Regardless of whether I was spending time with my Cuban or Dominican family, these savory small bites were always pastelitos.
Growing up, I always understood the difference between empanadas and pastelitos to be shape.
Empanadas are more widely known, especially here in the states. Empanadas are half mooned shaped and only require one piece of dough that you fold over in half with your filling inside.
Pastelitos, on the other hand, are round and require two pieces of dough. You place your first piece of dough onto your working station, and then add your filling of choice into the center.
You then use water or an egg wash along the edges to the seal the pastelitos. In the end, you place the second piece of dough over the top and gently crimp it down with a fork. You can actually see the differences between the two here.
However, many of you may know these perfectly handheld treats as empanadas. If you’re curious on how to make empanada dough from scratch, I got you covered!
- Ground Beef
- Puff Pastry
- All Purpose Flour
- Eggs
- Water
- Onions
- Peppers
- Garlic
- Pitted Spanish Manzanilla Olives
- Simple Syrup Glaze
Nonetheless, you should know that the dough used to make Cuban Pastelitos is much different than that used to make empanadas.
Cuban Pastelitos call for puff pastry. This is the same dough used when making one of my other favorite Cuban treats – Pastelitos de Guayaba con Queso (Guava and Cheese Puffs).
Puff pastry is notoriously tricky to make, so I suggest buying store bought dough from the freezer aisle from your favorite brand and supermarket.
Cuban Pastelitos are sweet on the outside and savory on the inside. The filling is Cuban Style Picadillo, which you can make with or without potatoes or raisins. You might judge me for this, but I actually don’t mind raisins in my Picadillo.
Making a simple syrup is extremely easy! All you need is equal parts sugar and water. Simply add the ingredients to a small sauce pan and simmer on low for 5 minutes. Let it cool and use the simple syrup in cocktails and pastries!
For best results, glaze the pastelitos while the warm and fresh out of the oven. This will stick to the warm puff pastry, thus making them shiny and subtly sticky. It’s all in the making of a delicious Cuban treat!
Before we jump into one of my favorite recipes, here are some quick tips that I swear by!
Tip 1: Use round biscuit cutters to cut the dough. This will give your pastelitos a uniformed shape and speed the formation process
Tip 2: Make sure your puff pastry is fully thawed before forming the pastelitos. Working with frozen dough is never fun
Tip 3: Use an egg wash to seal the edges of the pastelitos. The pastelitos have the tendency to grow in the oven and you want to keep them intact
Tip 4: Chill your pastelitos for at least 10 minutes before baking while the oven warms up. This will help the pastelitos puff up perfectly while cooking
Tip 5: Don’t forget to make the slits in the pastelitos before baking. This allows for air and pressure to escape
Tip 6: Dress your pastelitos with the simple syrup while the pastelitos are still warm. This will glaze your pastelitos and give them the perfect sweet finish!
Try These Cuban Delights
Cuban Pastelitos de Carne
Cuban Style Pastelitos de Carne made with puff pastry and a delicious Cuban Picadillo filling!
- Total Time2 Hours
- Yield6 Servings 1x
Ingredients
Beef Picadillo Filling
- 8 oz Ground Beef
- 1/2 White Onion Minced
- 1/4 Green Bell Pepper Minced
- 6 Garlic Cloves Minced
- 1/4 teaspoon Cumin
- 1 tablespoon Sazon con Achiote
- 2 Bay Leaves or 2 teaspoon Cilantro
- 1 teaspoon Dominican Oregano
- 2 tablespoon Tomato Paste
- 2 oz Dry White Wine
- 1 tablespoon Diced Spanish Manzanilla Olives *optional
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon Raisins *optional
- 1 cup Water
Pastelito
- 2 Sheets Puff Pastry
- 2 tablespoons All Purpose Flour *if needed
Simple Syrup & Egg Wash
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Water
- 1 Large Egg
- 2 tablespoons Water
Instructions
Beef Picadillo Filling
- Season ground beef with cumin, Dominican oregano, sazon con achiote, kosher salt, and black pepper. Mix until well combined and set aside
- Over medium-high heat, warm up a braiser or a deep sided skillet. Add roughly 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Then add seasoned ground beef and brown on all sides. Afterwards, add minced onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Saute for 3-5 minutes until veggies become soft. Then add 1 cup of water along with bay leaves or cilantro. Stew meat on medium for 20 minutes. This will allow the picadillo to become velvety smooth. Feel free to taste test and add extra water and stew for longer if the meat is still tough
- Once the ground beef has become velvety smooth and the water has evaporated by about 90%, add tomato paste and dry white wine. Make sure to work in tomato paste until well combined and then add diced Spanish olives (optional). This will make the meat savory and saucy. Cook for another 2 minutes and then set aside
Simple Syrup & Egg Wash
- Over medium – high heat, add equal parts water (1 cup) and sugar (1 cup). Mix together until well combined. Then let simmer for 5 minutes. Afterwards, set aside
- In a small bowl, whisk together 1 large egg and 2 tablespoons of water. Set aside
Forming Pastelito
- Using thawed puff pastry, gently roll out just to ensure that puff pastry is completely thawed. Feel free to flour work surface if needed. Then cut out pastelitos discs using a round biscuit or cookie cutter. You can choose the size that you like. I prefer to use a biscuit cutter that is 3 1/4 inches wide. This will roughly give me 6 discs per puff pastry sheet. Feel free to dust away any excess flour
- Now that it’s time to create our pastelitos, begin by gently adding the egg wash to one of the discs. To that same same disc with the egg wash, add the Picadillo filling making sure to keep it concentrated in the center. Then cover the pastelito with another disc. Using your fingers, gently press down along the sides. For extra security, crimp the edges down using a fork. Repeat this process until you have formed all of the pastelitos
- Place formed pastelitos in the fridge while the oven pre-heats
Oven Baking & Basting
- Pre-heat oven to 425°F and place formed pastelitos in the refrigerator to rest while the oven warms up.
- Once the oven has come up to temperature, create two slits at the top of each pastelitos. This will allow air and pressure to escape as they bake. Then add the egg wash over the top of the pastelitos. Bake the pastelitos for 20-22 minutes until they become golden yellow and rise. Remove from the rest and let rest
- As the pastelitos are resting and while they’re still warm, brush the tops and the sides of the pastelitos with simple syrup. This subtle glaze gives the pastelitos their perfect finish, shine, and sweetness
Notes
Make Ahead & Storage
- You can prep Cuban pastelitos ahead of time and store in the fridge. Wait until you’re about to bake pastelitos to baste the top layer with egg wash and create slits
- If freezing the pastelitos, freeze without basting top layer and creating slits. Baste pastelitos with the egg once you’re ready to bake. Defrost pastelitos in the fridge before baking.
Simple Syrup
- For best results, baste pastelitos while they’re still warm so that the pastelitos become shiny, tasty, and subtly sweet
Re-Heating
- For best results, re-heat pastelitos in the oven at 325°F for 7 minutes until they are warm throughout
- Prep Time: 1 Hour
- Cook Time: 1 Hour
- Category: Appetizer, Snack
- Method: Baking, Sautéing
- Cuisine: Caribbean, Cuban, Latin