Best RecipesPaifala - Samoan half-moon pies (modern recipe) News Recipes

By panipopos

A couple of months ago, I made paifala using a traditional recipe with coconut milk and cornstarch. Here are some delicious paifala from a fellow blogger, Lotus, at Whymsicallotus, that also used that recipe. When I made it, I noticed that quite some filling leaks out during baking, and the crust on that paifala is very much like Masi Samoa.

So this is Paifala II - with a shortcrust pastry, a custard filling and without coconut milk. It's flavour is not better or worse than the traditional recipe, just different. In terms of structure, however, this modern take on paifala has minimal leakage and the crust can hold even more filling than the traditional recipe.

Paifala (makes 5)
Filling
1 cup (240ml) milk
4 tablespoons custard powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups (500g) crushed pineapple, drained
½ cup (100g) sugar*
½ teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

* If you have a sweet tooth, increase to 3/4 cup (150g) sugar.

Put the custard powder, milk, vanilla essence and sugar in a saucepan and mix until smooth. Put this over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens. Finally, turn the heat off and add your pineapple and nutmeg (if using). Mix until well-combined, then set aside to cool to room temperature.

Crust

3½ cups (400g) flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
⅓ cup (70g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 tablespoons (60ml) milk
¾ cup (150g) butter, room temperature

Sift the flour and baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix together. Then add the rest of the crust ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until everything just comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead together into a smooth ball. Try not to handle the dough too much because you don't want to melt the butter. Also, don't add too much flour, or you'll get a tough dough. If you find the dough is too sticky to handle, then refrigerate for half an hour, and try working with it again.

Assembling the paifala
Cut your dough into 5 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into an 8” (20cm) circle. Put some of your cooled pineapple filling into the centre. Lightly wet the edges of the piecrust with water, and then fold one half of the pie over the other. Press the edges together with a fork. See the paifala video if you want visuals.

Pierce the top of the pie several times (steam vents) then bake at 350°F (180°C) for 25-30 minutes until light golden. Remove from the oven and cool. Be careful not to overbake these or the crust will be too crumbly.

My pie was stuffed till crammed with filling, but this is the only leak I had:

In the big picture, this leak was next to nothing.



Enjoy warm or cold, with a hot drink.



http://panipopos.blogspot.com

Best RecipesPaifala – Samoan half-moon pies (traditional recipe) News Recipes

By panipopos

I’ve done something a little different this time. I’ve made someone else’s recipe.

You see, back in my pre-blogging days, whenever I googled “paifala recipe”, this one recipe would show up 95% of the time. (And Google would also ask me if I meant to search for “paella recipe”. The nerve!)

Since this recipe is out there in Googleland as the recipe for paifala, I was intrigued and had to try it out. Now this is not, I repeat, this is NOT my recipe. Paifala at my house were pineapple-custard stuffed confections enrobed in a buttery, smooth shortcrust pastry. No, this is definitely not that recipe.

This recipe uses cornstarch instead of custard, and the piecrust is similar to masi samoa. The pastry is much nuttier and fragrant than the paifala I’m used to, and the filling is just as good as custard. The ingredients are so simple and unpretentious, and the taste is – what’s the word I’m looking for – honest. That’s why I’m labelling this a ‘traditional’ recipe. No yellow food colouring to be found here folks!

So really, whose recipe is this?

Why, it’s Lily Dayton’s.

Who?

Here, check it out for yourself. I think she finally deserves credit for her much-plagarised recipe.

Unless she got it off Google herself. LOL.

JK. Much respect for Ms Dayton and her paifala.

I’ve made slight changes (5 cups of flour was a tad bit too much for me and her baking time was too short), but otherwise, this is a solid recipe. So here it is, good ole’ honest island-style paifala.

Paifala (makes 5)

adapted from Lily Dayton's recipe

Filling:

2 cups drained crushed pineapple

1 cup (200g) sugar

½ cup (120ml) milk

⅓ cup (30g) cornstarch

⅓ cup (80ml) syrup from crushed pineapple

Piecrust:

3 cups (375g) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

⅓ cup (75g) butter

1 cup (240ml) coconut milk

pinch salt

Make the filling ahead and give it ample time to cool to room temperature. Simply mix the pineapple, sugar and milk in a saucepan and heat until simmering. Dilute the cornstarch with the pineapple juice and add this to the pineapple mixture. Stir it over low heat for 1-2 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and cool.

For the piecrust, throw everything in a bowl and mix. When it starts to come together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and press it together. Don’t knead this dough or it’ll be chewy and tough.

Cut your dough into 5 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into an 8” (20cm) circle. Put some of your cooled pineapple filling into the centre. But pay attention to how much you put in - too much and the pie will burst in the oven, too little and people will complain. The recipe above makes just enough for five pies.

Lightly wet the edges of the piecrust with water, and then fold one half of the pie over the other. Press the edges together with your fingers or, if you wanna be fancy, with a fork. Pierce the top of the pie several times then bake at 375°F (190°C) for 35-40 minutes until light golden. Remove from the oven and cool.

Big half-moon pies are usually served in thick strips, but since these are only 8” wide, I reckon you could give a hungry Samoan a whole one. Or two.

 

http://panipopos.blogspot.com