Hello there lovelies! It’s a beautiful rainy, cold afternoon
here in Wales and in my opinion the perfect weather for comfort food! And what
better food is there than a homemade chicken pie!
Now if you’re like me and your other half will simply refuse
to eat vegetables, you need to get creative in order to keep them healthy….yes
I am aware pies are not particularly healthy but they are an easy way od
sneaking vegetables into your loved ones!
This pie is one of my favourites to make; it’s a regular
chicken and bacon pie, minus the mushrooms and extra smoky flavour!
There is however one little problem….in the past my mum has
always been the one to make the pastry for me so I’m on my own! Oh no help!
So I though why not let’s document this experience together!
Armed with my mums’ short crust pastry recipe in hand…Let’s get cooking!
I will be including the actual pie filling recipe after this
post! I thought this one post would end up being WAY to long if I included all
of the steps for the filling as well!
Things you will need:
- 240g of plain flour
- 80g of chilled butter
- 80g of vegetable fat
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- A small amount of cold water
(side note – you can use all butter if you can’t get a hold
of any vegetable fat, the end result is basically the same, you will just have
slightly harder pastry to roll out and it will taste more buttery obviously!)
Step 1: Weigh out all of your ingredients to begin, pour the
flour, salt and pepper into a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Cut the butter and vegetable fat into little cubes
and tip that on top of the flour, now use your fingertips to rub the flour,
butter and fat together, after a few minutes of doing this it should resemble
breadcrumbs.
Step 3: Make a well in the middle of your mixture and pour
in roughly 2-4 tablespoons of cold water and use your hands to bring the
mixture together until it forms a smooth ball, add more water one tablespoon at
a time if the mixture does not come together.
Make sure you don’t use too much water! On top of the pastry
becoming too sticky it can also make it very hard and difficult to work with!
Step 4: Form a smooth ball out of your dough making sure not
to overwork it, wrap it in little cling film and pop it in the fridge for an
hour before you use it!
And there we go! Phew that wasn’t so hard was it! In an hour
the pastry will be good to go in roughly an hours’ time which gives you plenty
of time to make a filling and let it cool…it’s very important you let whatever
filling you make cool otherwise the heat from the mixture will do wacky things
to the pastry (it basically melts/becomes soggy!)
The next part of this recipe will be following up shortly as
I am writing this as I cook, I can’t really post the next part if I haven’t finished
it myself can I? ;)
Anyway! If you enjoyed this post please leave me a comment
below letting me know if you are a seasoned pastry maker and what you do
differently to me or if you are a newbie like me!
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