British style hand held meat pies.
Cornish Pasties
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
This week for Sunday Supper we are baking pies. Whether your favorites are savory pies of any sort, such as Cornish Pasties, Shepherd’s Pie, Quiche, or Pot Pie, or something sweet for after dinner, this week’s offerings should have something for you with about 60+ entries from Sunday Supper TasteMakers in the event.
I decided to do Cornish Pasties, foremost because I have never made them before, and always take that as a challenge, and because I generally adore meat pies in general, including the Canadian Tourtiere, which is one of my favorites. Plus, I have enjoyed meat pies since I was a kid, with little frozen pot pies being offered in the sixties as an alternative to the space-age tv dinner.
But of course I enjoy making other pies, such as quiche in many forms, or vegetable strudel, or shepherd’s pie, or lots and lots of fruit pies for dessert, although my family also adores cream pies like banana and coconut, and the usual Thanksgiving fare of pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie or pecan pie with a splash of bourbon.
Small pies, in fact might be my favorites, as I like eating things out of hand. It must stem from a childhood love of Pop-Tarts. I could pop one in the toaster and eat it on the way to school, considering I used to be a habitual late-riser.
And these pies certainly do fill the hand pies theme, being like a British stew in a ready to carry Hot Pocket. I added the demi-glace and sauce of my own accord (I don’t think it’s traditional) but I like lots of flavor. The rutabaga is what is known in Britain as turnips (or Swedes), although it is not the same as the usual turnip. You could easily go with all potato if you wished, but use waxy potatoes so they hold their shape better when baked.
I serve these with a bit of HP sauce on the side (it’s like a British version of A-1 sauce) and if you want to do that, curl up in your easy chair with a pastie or two, a cold English Ale (such as Fuller’s ESB) and watch Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter show you the darker intricacies of pie-making, please do. I’ll be right there with you.
~Sue
Cornish Pasties
Prep time (chilling dough): 3 hours
Prep time (other): 30 minutes
Bake time: about an hour
Ingredients:
Dough:
- 17 ounces bread flour
- 4 ounces vegetable shortening or lard
- 4 ounces cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces ice water
Filling:
- 8 ounces peeled diced rutabaga (Swedes)
- 8 ounces diced waxy potatoes
- 6 ounces diced skirt steak
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons beef demi-glace or beef base
- 1 tablespoon HP sauce or A-1 sauce
Other:
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon water
- nonstick spray
- foil
- Butter Spray (I can’t believe it’s not butter)
Method:
- Rub butter and shortening into flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add the water and knead until the mixture becomes elastic, using a dough hook on an electric mixer if you so choose.
- Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for three hours or more to relax the dough.
- When the dough has chilled and relaxed, preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Chop rutabaga, potatoes, onion and steak into a small dice (maybe 1/4″) and stir together in a mixing bowl (all ingredients raw) and stir in salt, black pepper, demi-glace or beef base, and the steak sauce.
- Roll out dough into circles 7-8 inches across (I used a small bread plate and cut around it with a dull knife).
- Mix beaten egg in a small bowl with a tablespoon of water.
- Place half cup of the filling mixture onto dough, brush the edge on one side with beaten egg and fold top over into a half moon shape.
- Curl the bottom edge of dough over the top and securely crimp edges. Finish by dabbing more egg wash onto the edge (but not the top). Cut 2-3 tiny vent holes into the top of the dough with a small sharp knife.
- Place pies onto a nonstick sprayed, foil lined baking sheet (I used two sheets) and bake in the oven for about an hour, switching positions of baking pans thirty minutes through (turning them around as well) and spraying lightly with butter spray the last 15 minutes of baking to help them brown. They are done when they are nicely browned.
- Serve with steak sauce (HP/British, A-1/American).
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
Pies: Sweet and Savory
The Sunday Supper Tastemakers are very pleased to present:
Pies: Dinner or dessert? It’s up to you.
Hosted by: Erica Acevedo of The Crumby Cupcake
#SundaySupper Pies: Sweet & Savory
Sweet As Pie
- Apple Browned Butter Tart by The Chef Next Door
- Banana Cream Pie from Recipes Food and Cooking
- Brown Sugar Pie from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Cherry Chocolate Brownie Pie from Sew You Think You Can Cook
- Chocolate Macadamia Nut Tart from Desserts Required
- Chocolate Pudding Pie from The Bitter Side of Sweet
- Fresh Lemon Hand Pies from From Gate to Plate
- German Sweet Chocolate Cream Pie from Meal Planning Magic
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Cherry Pie from NinjaBaker
- Grapefruit Pie from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies from Pies and Plots
- Irish Cream Coffee Mud Pie from The Crumby Cupcake
- Leaf Topped Apple Pie from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Magic Cookie Bar Pie from Moore or Less Cooking
- Mixed Berry Hand Pies from My Imperfect Kitchen
- No Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Pie from Feeding Big and More
- No Bake Blueberry Mini Filo-Pies from Hardly A Goddess
- No-Bake Mixed Berry Cream Cheese Tart from Magnolia Days
- Orange Meringue Pie from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
- Paifala (Samoan Pineapple Half Moon Pies) from Tara’s Multicultural Table
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pie from Sweet Mornings
- Perfect Manhattan Pie from The Texan New Yorker
- Pineapple Meringue Pie from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Quick Swiss Apple Pie from Confessions of a Cooking Diva
- Raspberry Cheesecake Pudding Pie from Flour On My Face
- Strawberry Mascarpone Tart from Taste And See
Mealtime Pie
- Beef & Red Wine Pie from Wholistic Woman
- Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Grated Potato Crust from Food Lust People Love
- Chard and Parsnip Galette from Caroline’s Cooking
- Chicken Tamale Pie from Rants from my Crazy Kitchen
- Cornish Pasties from Palatable Pastime
- Homity Pie (British Potato Leek Pie) from Curious Cuisiniere
- Italian Cheesy Artichoke and Asparagus Phyllo Pie from La Bella Vita Cucina
- Irish Shepherd’s Pie from The Freshman Cook
- Jamaican “No-Beef” Patties from What Smells So Good?
- Mini Swiss Quiches from Family Around The Table
- Mushroom Swiss Quiche from Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
- Pizza Rustica from Monica’s Table
- Salmon Pot Pie from Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen
- Savory and Spicy Mincemeat Pie from eating in instead
- Shepherd’s Pie Hand Pies from Our Good Life
- Skillet Shepherd’s Pie from Life Tastes Good
- Spaghetti Pie from Grumpy’s Honeybunch
- Spicy Korean Cottage Pie from kimchi MOM
- Taco Hand Pies from Kitchen Gidget
- Weeknight Chicken Pot Pie from Books n’ Cooks
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You’re making me homesick with these Sue! They look great.
Thank you! My crimping job stinks, but they held together at least! LOL! Not as pretty as so many pictures I have seen that look like braided rope going around. :/
So fun to see this recipe! Pasties are big here in Michigan
Thanks Wendy!
I just love me a good pasty; these look GREAT! 😀
Thanks!
Sue, I LOVE that you tackled a challenge for our pie event. These look fabulous by the way!
Thanks! It was a challenge as the source recipe for this was way off on the scaling—I still have enough filling to do another recipe (but fortunately the quantity I put down is what actually works!) LOL! The rest of that I think I will just slap a top crust on in a deep dish, like a pot pie. I still have a bunch of pasties left- since it’s the two of us here. Those will hit the freezer to warm up some other time. 😀
I love small hand-size pies too! These are the perfect thing to have on hand for a simple weekday meal. It’s just the two of us and freezing them to pull them out whenever is a good idea!
They heat marvelously in the toaster oven. And very economical once the price for all these meals is figured. No wonder they are so popular!
I never knew what was in actually 8in Cornish pasties—I have a feeling even my picky hubby would love them!!!
I think he would- they are sort of like the flavor of stew, or maybe something like a tourtiere with beef and less spice. Definitely pub food!
English pies are the best! I so miss hanging out in London. This brings back such memories.
I’ve never been to London, but would enjoy these with a cold pint of Fuller’s ESB, and maybe a friend or three I have met online that live over there!
I want to try to make these sometime! I’ve seen them at the market, but never had one.
I hope you like them! Really not very hard to make.
Oooh, I like that your dough uses bread flour! I have an unopened bag that I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with before we move at the end of the month!
Glad I could help!
Hi Sue, oh I love c ornish pasties, there is a restaurant near where my son lives that specializes in them. Yours look delicious!
Thanks so much! They are really fairly easy to make so now you can have your own!
We LOVE these at home! So yummy and hearty
Thank you!