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Cornish Pasties

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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

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Print page

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:

  1. Rub butter and shortening into flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
  2. Add the water and knead until the mixture becomes elastic,  using a dough hook on  an electric mixer if you so choose.
  3. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for three hours or more to relax the dough.
  4. When the dough has chilled and relaxed, preheat oven to 350ºF.
  5. 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.
  6. Roll out dough into circles 7-8 inches across (I used a small bread plate  and cut around it with a dull knife).
  7. Mix beaten egg in a small bowl with a tablespoon of water.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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

Mealtime Pie

You might also like:

Tourtiere (Canadian Meat Pie)

Splenda Dutch Apple Pie

Quiche with Swiss Chard and Mushroom

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