Pastries - Chicken and Crab pies

I got a little lazy in Ramadan so I used a store-bought pack of puff pastry for Ebrahim's lunch pies - instead of making everything from scratch. Except that I didn't make the usual types of pies this time.

Nostalgic for home, especially at this time of the year, I had a strong craving for Chicken Patties, so I made some in chicken, and a whole pie with crab meat instead.

For the chicken mixture, I boiled some boneless pieces in salted water, and mixed in some roasted garlic cream cheese, pepper, peas, and corn.

For the crab meat, I saute'ed the meat in butter, crumbled it and mixed in some dijon mustard, finely chopped green onions, cream cheese, black pepper, salt, paprika, and some milk to smoothen the consistency.

To prepare a whole pie, I rolled out the puff pastry into a large rectangle (around 10 x 14-inch). The dough can be tricky to work with it, but I used parchment paper and lots of white flour to keep the dough under control and it worked just fine.

Then I made some egg wash by mixing in one egg with some cold water, and brushed it all over the rolled out dough. I placed the mixture in the centre and cut out the sides such that each side looked like one end of a V - remember to keep equal number of strips on each side!

To wrap the pie I folded across the strips alternating each side and pressing down to make sure they stick together.

Then I brushed the top with some egg wash and baked at 400F for 20 minutes, till the sides had browned.

For the chicken patties I did the same except that I cut out the rolled dough into 9 squares, and filled out the centres.

For the shape I did something slightly different, and the pictures below can explain it a lot better!

I forgot to use egg wash with the chicken patties so I brushed some milk on the top just before I popped them in the oven at 400F for 15-20 minutes.

I also froze some (uncooked) for Ebrahim's school snack. They bake well directly from the freezer at 400F for 20-30 minutes, or till the sides have browned.