Save me from this babble (jump straight to the recipe).
So, one of the things I miss the most is sausage rolls and cornish pasties (infact I haven’t been to Cornwall for about 15 years, and part of me dreads going back because if I can’t watch a sunset with a pasty it will just be wrong! Anyway back to the matter at hand…). One particular day I woke up having dreamed of cornish pasties – I kid you not – and ever the eternal optimist I thought, how hard can it be?
Essentially I have maxed out the levels of foolish I can reach. But I thought, it’s only me eating them so even if I have to stick them in the blender to save my teeth let’s give it a shot.
Let’s just say, I was surprised. Even me, the burner of salad (that’s a story for another day) has managed to create edible cornish pasties!! (the first time anyway… the second attempt I forgot to set the timer).
****For the gluten-free shortcrust pastry:
1 tsp xanthan gum
300 g gluten-free plain flour (extra for dusting useful – though I did forget the first time!)
1 tsp salt
1 large free-range egg
50 g unsalted butter (I need to try it with a veggie oil to make it dairy free).
**For the filling:
3 medium sized potatoes
half of a small swede
1 medium onion (I used red)
300g of beef steak (diced/chopped)
salt and ground pepper to taste
thyme
parsley (this is my favourite herb, you will notice it crop up alot)
……………………………………..
To make the pastry:
SIEVE (I cannot stress enough how much quicker and easier it makes the next bit – please learn from my mistake and save yourself a lot of time) the flour, salt and xanthan gum into a bowl.
Place the butter and 130ml water over a low heat and bring to the boil, then allow to cool briefly.
Beat eggs in a separate dish and then stir into the flour. Slowly add in the warm butter water bit by bit till it gets doughy. Squish together with your hands (it will stop sticking to you eventually, promise!). The dough then needs to be put in the fridge, cool dough is nice to work with, warm dough is sticky, gloopy and horrible! (Either clingfilm or an airtight tub works, a tub is easier to open and close so you can leave it in the fridge).
Pop greaseproof paper on a baking tray (it does not need to be cut exactly to shape… sorry TSB 😉 )
Put baking tray in the oven and preheat oven to gas mark 4/180ºC/350ºF.
Now for the filling…..
Dice the beef and mix in a bowl with 1-2 tablespoons of gluten free flour, salt and pepper and mix well.
In a different bowl dice the potato, swede (and any other random vegetables you think might work…. I found a tin of peas) and finely chop the onion. Add salt and pepper and herbs and mix.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough (I rolled with greaseproof paper on top as it kept clinging to the pin and crumbling) to about 0.5cm thick, use a small plate/saucer to cut around to give you the perfect circle.
Pop your filling on just one side of the circle.
Brush beaten egg around the edges (a clean… paint brush worked brilliantly). Slowly fold the pastry circle over the filling – I tore so so many, so be gentle. It helps to squish the filling with a spoon a bit – and fold the edges over each other, squeeze them to seal them.
When on the baking tray brush over the tops with more beaten egg (you might want to brush with more egg halfway through – mine didn’t go brown and crispy, they stayed as pale as me).
30-45 mins depending on your oven. Or what mood your oven is in! Batch 1 took 45 mins, batch 2 took 30mins. Same oven different day.
And there we have it, edible(!!!) cornish pasties!
Thanks for reading! Pictures to come soon.