In between efforts to plink away at the squirrels in our backyard,tracking deer, a knifefight with an aggressive raccoon, and his regular school work, my 13 year old son made this for supper on Thursday. It takes a long time to fix, so he did it in two parts.
Essentially, it’s a kind of meatloaf wrapped in a biscuity crust. He mixed up the dough in the morning and left it, covered, in the mixer until time to add the meat filling. Since the biscuit crust also has tomato sauce, I figured the acid in the tomatoes makes for soaked wheat, addressing the phytic acids problem (if in fact it is a problem). I have no evidence for this, I just figured it might, and it helped him get dinner done in two parts.=)
Combine in mixing bowl:
4 cups flour (we used freshly ground whole wheat)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon each salt, sage, majoram (I’d cut back on the salt)
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup oil or melted butter or coconut oil
1 and 1/2 cups tomato sauce (we didn’t have this, so we took a can of crushed tomatoes, ran it through the blender and then added some extra flour to make up for the more liquid texture).
Milk for brushing dough (optional)
celery seed if desired
Mix all this, knead lightly, and let it rest until you are ready for it. Cover it if will be a few hours.
Filling
2-2 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (ours is grassfed beef from our own cows)
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup soda cracker crumbs (we used oyster crackers. I’m not really sure how necessary this is. Grass fed beef, at least ours, is very lean)
2 eggs
4 tablespoons dried, minced onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
The recipe did not call for cheese, but we all agree there should be some, either in the meat or the bread. Or both.=)
Combine the filling mixture, mixing well.
Roll the dough out into two large rectangles. Spread with filling to within 1/2 inch of the ends. Roll like a pinwheel
(I didn’t supervise this part, and my son essentially just made one giant sausage roll instead of a pinwheel, and he made numerous smaller rolls rather than two large ones.).
Seal.
Put seam side down on a cookie sheet (greased)
Slash tops with knife
Brush with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
Bake an hour at 350 degrees. Let set ten minutes. Slice and serve.
We had it with pineapple on the side, which was really a nice flavor. We also had cauliflower. Salad would have been better, but this is what we had.=)
It was really good- except that it needs cheese. I think I’ll have him make it next Thursday, too, only with cheese. He’ll make the pinwheels, too, because the pinwheel shape would balance the meat and bread shape..
This serves a dozen healthy appetites with enough for leftovers the next day. I also think it would probably freeze well and take to reheating very well.
Linked at:
Hunk of Meat Mondays
Dining with Debbie
Real Food Wednesday
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Thanks!