So tonight we made Scotch pies. This is the first time we've deviated from the usual Aussie style puff pastry affair that our business has been selling for almost 20 years.
And, as we didn't have any minced lamb, or minced beef for that matter, we made up a sort of beef stew and made steak pies.
Anyway, it was more about the pastry.
I was a bit slow to start taking photos, but the pastry was:
Hot Water Pastry
* 250g (8.8 oz) Plain flour – 2 cups* 100g (3.5) Lard – 1/2 cup* 125ml ( fl oz) Water – 1/2 cup* A Little milk to glaze the tops before baking your pies
Although we doubled up from the above and added salt.
Melt the lard into the water without bringing to the boil then add it into the flour and mix by hand until doughy.
Kneed for around 30 seconds then roll out your bases and lids. Stick them in the fridge for at least an hour but the longer the better.
Tend to your filling. We added some corn flour to thicken it up.
Into your pies
Lids on. Wifey jumped the gun here and started crimping them on to the walls. Big No-no. They should be slightly small in circumference to allow the filling to breathe. We did cut round one as you can see and cut a hole in another. We had our first argument of the day about this. I say hole, she say no hole. I say the pies will explode without a hole, she says the filling will erupt through a hole. We also made 1 small one for comparison as it seemed the ideal size would be somewhere in between out tin sizes.
Right, into the oven at approx 160 degC for around 45 mins. This is also the cooking time if you have raw minced meat in there.
At this point I went upstairs to my makeshift gym and had a workout, avoiding any kind of stress to the abs. Don't skip legs on pie day people, skip abs.
Done.