Directions
Delicious traditional pastry named as “Mantii” or “Manti”, one of my favorite bites that melt in your mouth, are prepared with homemade sheets with minced beef filling that are perfectly complemented by sour milk with touch of garlic and the refreshing taste of chopped fresh parsley and mint.
Making crusts at home can be quick and easy, and stacking them on top of each other will take less time than usual. If you spread the filling on the ends, you will easily and quickly fold it into one long crust, which you will cut into small pieces in the size that suits you. The preparation of the crusts with the filling will not take you more than twenty minutes, and with the quick baking, you will be able to taste and enjoy it in a short period of time.
Below follow the details and preparation of this wonderful pie that will make your home smell of warmth and love.
Ingredients for Pie Crust
530 grams of flour
300 ml of water (cold-lukewarm)
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
Ingredients for filling with minced beef or pork of choice
500 grams of minced meat
1 small onion
1 egg
25 grams of bread crumbs
50 grams of milk
1 teaspoon of salt
black pepper to taste
Mix all the ingredients well until combine and let them sit while you prepare the crusts.
Preparation of the crusts
A dough is kneaded from the flour, water, olive oil and salt. The water should not be hot, but lukewarm around 30 degrees. Knead the dough for fifteen minutes until all the flour is absorbed and while kneading it will get a smooth structure. Brush the dough with oil and let it rest in a coated bowl covered with foil for at least one hour at room temperature. You can prepare and knead the dough the day before, in the evening and leave it in the refrigerator, so it will be even softer and nicer the next day.
After an hour, divide the dough into 5 parts and shape one dough into a ball from each part on a floured surface. Sprinkle the dough with flour and let it rest for ten minutes. Then, with a rolling pin on a floured surface, roll them into a diameter of 20 to 30 cm. Brush oil on both sides of each small crust.
You can also add melted butter to the oil when brushing the pies. Coat each crust nicely on both sides, and on the ends, it’s important to coat them nicely and completely so they don’t crack later on when stretching. Coated like this, arrange them one on top of the other, and leave them covered with foil for ten minutes.
Stretching, although it seems like a difficult process, every housewife can find her own easy way and with small stretching movements from the inside out, you can get a nice and thin crust that will not crack. After stretching each crust, stack them on top of each other, sprinkling each one individually with a little oil. After arranging all the crusts, stretch them again as thin as you can and arrange the filling nicely a few centimeters from the ends. Then fold the ends so that they cover the filling and begin to fold them towards the inside.
Roll the crust from the outside-in with constant stretching and finally cut the middle part and wrap, making a long salami of crust. The resulting crust is quickly shaped and you can cut it into small pieces of Mantii in the size you want.
Coat the pan with oil and begin to arrange the Mantii side by side. When cutting, you can close them on both sides, or you can leave them open on the top side to see the filling, as you prefer, the choice is yours. Bake them at 220 degrees for fifteen minutes, at the end reduce the temperature.
Serve them with sour milk with garlic and chopped parsley and mint.
You can freeze them and keep them for many days, it is enough to warm them up before tasting and feel the taste and crunch just like when they are fresh.
Have a good appetite! Cheers !
