S1E5 Technical: Cornish Pasties

Welcome to my last technical challenge of season one; only three challenges left!

Today's challenge is cornish pasties! I spent most of May and June making pasties with Evie's mum to sell at a local market on Pender Island, so I've been looking forward to this challenge. The pasties that we made were all vegetarian or vegan, filled with spicy chickpea, cheese and onion, curried cauliflower, mushroom, or apple and raisin. We made them with shortcrust pastry (both butter-based and vegan) and even experimented with gluten-free pastry. 

The recipe used in this challenge is very different, yielding four large pasties consisting of a suet crust and a filling of beef, potato, onion, and suede (for those who don't know, "suede" is a British term for rutabaga or yellow turnip). My biggest worry going into this bake was that the filling needs to go into the pasty raw, meaning that there isn't an opportunity to taste test the seasoning. It's also a very simple ingredients list, so there's nowhere to hide if the flavours are bland.

I have one and a half hours. Go!

First, I mixed the flour, salt, butter and suet. I added in the cold water and used my hands to mix it until the water was mostly incorporated. 

I tipped it out onto my work surface and kneaded it until it was smooth. Normally, pie crust is delicate and requires as little handling as possible to get a light, flaky crust. Pasties are hand pies, historically made for miners as a portable, hearty lunch. The crust had to be strong so that the pasty wouldn't fall apart in their hands, so the gluten in the dough needs to be worked.

I then set the dough in the fridge so that the gluten could relax and the moisture could properly incorporate itself.

While it was chilling, I prepared my filling. I peeled and diced the vegetables and cut the beef into cubes.

I took the dough out of the fridge and divided it into four equal parts. I shaped each part into a disc, which I then rolled out into circles a bit larger than the size of dinner plates.

I placed approximately a quarter of the filling onto the centre of the dough, and then sealed the edges, crimping them shut. 

While admiring the crimping work I'd done on the first pasty, I realized that I had forgotten to season the filling. Oops.

I seasoned the rest of the fillings and then got back to rolling and crimping.

I brushed them with a wash of egg and salt and stuck them in the oven.

I checked them after 40 minutes and they weren't quite golden enough, so I put them back in until my time was up.

Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

These pasties are HUGE. From the outside, they looked delicious, and the bottoms were nice and brown. There was a little bit of leakage, but nothing awful. No soggy bottoms here!

Time to check the inside.

The pasty was nice and full, and the pastry was thin and crisp and strong. The pastry tasted great, however, the filling did need more seasoning. Evie and I split one pasty between us for dinner (since it was so huge) and we were stuffed. I can see why this would be a staple for labourers needing an inexpensive, convenient, and filling meal.

Evie ate her pasty with ketchup and I was only mildly offended.

Recipe used:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/classic_cornish_pasty_67037