I’ve re-discovered an old recipe for Pâte Brisée which works brilliantly with savoury pies.
It’s adapted from the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook and comes together in a flash in the food processor. Halve the quantities if necessary, or if you only need enough pastry to cover a single pot pie.
- 300g (2 cups) plain (AP) flour
- 150g (1 cup) bread/bakers flour (or more plain flour)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 250g (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 125ml (½ cup) ice water
1. In the bowl of a large food processor, pulse together the flours, salt and butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. With the machine running, add the cold water gradually until the mixture comes together in a ball. You might not need to add all the water.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently shape into a flat disc. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least half an hour before rolling out. The dough can also be frozen for use at a later time.
As I’m not particularly adept with a rolling pin, I prefer to roll my dough out between two sheets of parchment paper.
This batch made enough pastry to cover the tops of both the large beef and mushroom pie above and the medium vegetarian one below, with a small portion left over. Both pies were given a generous egg wash and then baked in a 200C (with fan) oven for half an hour.
There are times when only a pie will satisfy (as the old Big Ben jingle used to claim), and it’s comforting to have a reliable pastry dough for just such an occasion!
PS. I spent ages looking for these rectangular metal pie tins, and finally tracked them down at the Odgers & McClelland Exchange Stores. They’re made by Falcon Enamelware and are quite lightweight – I think they’re originally designed for camping. The larger one is 32cm, and results in a large enough pie for the four of us (remember that I’m feeding two starving wolves). The smaller 28cm one makes a dinner for two with leftovers.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 