Dough:

Make the dough by hand or in a food processor. If using a food processor, place the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and turmeric in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse to blend the ingredients.

In a mixing cup, whisk together the egg and 2/3 cup water. With the motor on, gradually add the mixture through the feed tube. Process until the dough forms a soft ball, about 10 seconds. Scatter the softened butter over the dough. Process until the dough is very soft and moist but not sticky, about 5 seconds. If the dough feels sticky, add about 1 tbl flour and pulse until it is no longer sticky. Place the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, knead briefly, and shape it into a ball. Refrigerate for at least one hour before use.

Filling:

Chop onions fine. Wearing gloves, seed the Scotch bonnet pepper and chop fine. Mince the garlic. Heat the butter in a large skillet over moderate heat. Add onions, garlic, and Scotch bonnet and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the meat, curry, thyme, salt, pepper, and sugar, and cook, breaking up the meat lumps with the back of the spoon, until the meat is browned, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer until the beef is tender, about 8 minutes. Add the bread crumbs, stir well to combined, and continue to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed, about 2 minutes longer. Remove the pan from the heat. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper if necessary. Let cool thoroughly.

Assemble:

Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the remainder covered in the refrigerator. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough piece out into a circle about 6 inches in diameter. Put about cup of the filling on the bottom half of the dough, leaving about a inch margin of dough exposed around the filling. Moisten the exposed edge with water. Fold the top half of the dough over the filling, forming a turnover. Join the edges by turning the bottom edge up and over and press the edge together. Press around turnover with the tines of a fork to seal.

Heat oven to 400 F. Place the patty on a lightly buttered cookie sheet. Cover sheet with a clean towel until all the patties are formed to protect them from drying out. Brush patties generously with melted butter and bake in preheated oven for twenty minutes, until light golden.

Serve patties hot with red pepper sauce or West Indian hot sauce such as jerk sauce.

Yield: 12 patties, enough for 12 first course or 6 light supper servings.

Notes:

If using canned broth, use the low sodium, fat free kind. Madras curry is the hot curry powder. Turmeric gives the dough its characteristic yellow color. You may substitute two jalapenos for the Scotch bonnet - or add more Scotch bonnet if you like the patties to be really hot. Use of a low fat beef keeps the patties from becoming greasy. The bread crumbs soak up any remaining meat juices.

Original recipe calls for rolling dough into rectangles 5 x7 inches and folding over to make square packets. Rolling the dough into circles is easier. Original recipe calls for adding an egg glaze to the patties and deep frying them in two to three inches of vegetable oil for three to four minutes. Baking as noted above is listed as an alternative option. Patties may be wrapped individually in plastic wrap and frozen uncooked for up to one month. Note - we wrapped the baked patties individually and froze them. They were thawed and reheated in a toaster oven. We have eaten Jamaican beef patties at a local Jamaican restaurant, and these are every bit as good. Patties are flavorful with a nice after-bite that lingers.

Adapted from: Cooking Under Wraps by Nicole Routhier