The Easiest Beef Puff Pastry Braid You’ll Ever Make

Hi everyone, yia sas, ke kalasir sata to another episode of Dimitra's Dishes. Today I have a beautiful puff pastry beef braid that I'm going to teach you how to make. It is inspired by traditional Greek meat pies and the filling is going to have ground beef, leeks, scallions, lots of herbs. It's going to be juicy, fresh and so flavorful and then it's going to be wrapped in a puff pastry. We're going to tie it into a braid and it looks much harder than it actually is. I'm going to show you the simplest way to make this. It's perfect if you're hosting a special brunch or if you just want to serve this as an appetizer at your next dinner party. Let's get started. Okay, we're going to begin by making the filling. I have some leeks over here. These are two large leeks. You need about half a pound of them and we're not using the dark green parts because they're very rough and fibrous and those are good for soups and stuff so you can save them for that. I like to use the white and the very light green parts. I cut the leek in half and then thinly slice them and then I like to take all of the leeks and put them in some water, toss them all around or swish them all around so if there's any dirt trapped between the leaves of the leeks it'll sink down to the bottom. I'm also going to thinly slice six scallions all the way down to the white parts, swish those around in the water too and then carefully transfer them either into a salad spinner or a strainer to get rid of that excess water. The leeks and the scallions are going to go into a little skillet with some olive oil and we're going to cook these over medium heat for about seven, eight minutes or until they're nice and soft and golden. Next I'm going to add about three garlic cloves that are grated. Just warm the garlic through in there. Once it's fragrant you can add the ground beef. I'm using one pound of ground lean beef here. I prefer the lean beef here just to keep it nice and light and not too greasy. So the beef is going to go in, season with a little salt and pepper, break it up and mix it all together with the scallions and the leeks. Cook it down for about 10-15 minutes and then we're going to take it off of the heat and add in the oregano and some finely chopped parsley, a little bit of thyme. We're going to taste it and adjust the seasoning if it's needed by adding some more salt and pepper if you'd like. I usually add a jalapeno in here. I just finely chop it and remove the seeds just for a little bit of freshness. I didn't have one today so I left it out. Let the filling cool to room temperature and get your puff pastry sheet out. I love using these 10 by 15 inch long and big puff pastries because we don't have to roll them out. Every time you roll out puff pastry, like if you're using the smaller ones, try not to roll them out because then it loses its flakiness. So I'm just going to use one sheet at a time. This makes two braids. I'm going to take half of that beef filling and spread it down the center. Cut about 11 or 12 diagonal slits across each side. These are going to fold over the filling and make that beautiful braid pattern. When you get down to the bottom, you could fold that bottom piece over and then braid over it just so that way it looks uniform and beautiful. Do the same thing with the second sheet of puff pastry. You can bake these both if you need them or you can freeze one and bake the other. This freezes beautifully. I'm going to freeze one but the one that I'm going to use, I'll brush some egg wash on top. This is going to go into my 400 degree oven on the middle rack for about 25-30 minutes or until it's golden and puffed and beautiful and delicious. Let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes and then this pairs beautifully with tzatziki and this is what I'm serving it with. It is ready to serve. And there you have it. The puff pastry braid is ready. I have the other one in the freezer and it'll keep fresh in there for up to three months. Once it's frozen solid, I'm going to wrap it in plastic wrap so it doesn't absorb any freezer odors and also so it doesn't dry out in there. This is so good to have on hand. It's delicious. The puff pastry is flaky and buttery. That filling is just amazing. It's so simple but those leeks and scallions really add moisture to the filling so it's not going to be dry at all obviously. Totally delicious. You can add some pine nuts and raisins if you want to sweeten it up a little bit. Delicious just the way it is so I do recommend that you try like this first. If you give it a try, definitely let me know how it turns out in the comment section. To print this recipe out, you can head on over to the website DemetriusDishes.com but before we leave, let me do the taste test. I love to serve this with tzatziki. Leave me alone with this thing and it'll be gone in like 20 minutes. So delicious especially with the creamy tzatziki on top. Like I said, the puff pastry is flaky. The meat filling is very juicy and so flavorful from all those herbs. Tzatziki is like chef's kiss, right? Tastes good with everything. You can make this with phyllo if you'd like. I've other versions of phyllo breads so you can check those out and just use that same technique with this filling. I hope you guys give this one a try. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I'll see you all next time. Yia sas!