Friday 20 March 2015

Pork Pies

As part of my telephone interview for the Great British Bake Off, I was asked how I would go about making pork pies.  I have never made them before but as an avid Bake Off fan, I had seen them being made so I new the right answer! During one of the comic relief Bake Off Episodes, they featured again and after a quick chat on twitter with some fellow food bloggers, the hot water crust pastry challenge was accepted.


I have to say this are by far the trickiest thing I have made! As soon as you have made your pastry you have to act fast as when it cools it is impossible to reshape and start again. So I will start with a warning - I have put these into my baking disasters category. Not because of the taste (I was assured by my brother in law that they were scrummy) but because of the overall look. Paul and Mary would say that they are not a uniformed bake! I think it will take a bit of practising before they are perfect.



I used Paul Hollywood's recipe from his book How to Bake. I had originally planned to add a little extra to the filling of my pork pies as I have some left over caramelised onion chutney from when I made some sausage rolls. However when I realised how tricky it was, I scrapped that idea and stuck to the recipe. Next time I will experiment a little more!

For the pork filling you will need:
1 large onion (chopped)
380g pork loin (chopped)
100g unsmoked bacon (chopped)
2 Tablespoons of chopped parsley - I used frozen as it avoids wasting what's not needed
Salt and ground black pepper

For the pastry you will need:
265g plain flour
55g strong white bread flour
55g unsalted butter
65g lard
1 teaspoon of salt
135ml boiling water
1 egg

For the jelly you will need:
2 small sheets of gelatine
1/2 chicken stock cube
300ml boiling water

Preheat your oven to 190c fan.

The first step is to prepare your filling by combining the pork, bacon, onion and parsley and seasoning with salt and black pepper. Set this to one side whilst you make the pastry.


For the pastry, combine the flours in a bowl and rub in the butter with your finger tips.

Heat the lard in a pan. Whilst this is melting, dissolve a teaspoon of salt into 135ml of boiling water. Add this mixture to the lard, when it is completely melted. Then poor the whole lot into the flour mixture and beat with a spoon until it is combined.

You need to work with the pastry dough whilst it is still hot so only allow it to cool enough for you to be able to handle it without burning yourself!

On a floured surface, work the dough until it forms a uniformed pastry. At this stage you will need to divide the dough into two pieces (one slightly larger than the other). Roll the larger section out and cut out 12 rounds with a 11cm cutter. Use these to line a muffin tin - the rounds sound be big enough to rise above the rim of the tin a litter. This was where I went wrong - I didn't have a cutter big enough so went with what I had and stretched them a little by hand which pulled them out of shape and definitely contributed to my finished pies looking a bit 'higgledy'.

Add a spoonful of the pork mixture to each pastry case.

Roll out the remaining pastry and cut 12 more rounds out - this time with a 6cm cutter. You will need to cut a small round hole in the centre of each lid as this lets the steam out and also allows you to put the jelly in.

Add the lids to your pork pies and crimp them closed as best you can before glazing with a lightly beaten egg.

Your pies need to bake for 50 minutes at 190c fan until they turn a nice golden brown colour.

Whilst cooking you can soften the gelatine sheets by covering them with cold water and leaving for 5 minutes. Squeeze the excess water out and add to 300ml of boiling water with 1/2 a chicken stock cube.

When the pies are out of the oven poor a small about of the stock mixture into each pie through the hole you made previously in each lid.

Allow your pies to cool completely and chill for as a long as you can resist them.

I normally say, 'that's all there is too it' but this was a tricky bake and one that I definitely need to practice.

Let me know how you get on - hopefully yours turn out a little more uniformed than mine!

Rach x

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