Scotch Pie in a Hot Water Crust Pastry

Yum Scrum ... What else to eat at the footy.

Belgium played Japan

2 - 3 sad I was going for Japan.

Peter G has turned me into a world cup watcher, well probably not as much watching as eating Scottish pies and laughing with the island retirement crowd.
Cath to the far left and Watson my Scotch drinking buddy next to her.

 

A dry-ish filling but the winner was the pastry a firm solid truly great pie crust.  

A Scotch pie or mutton pie is a small, double-crust meat pie filled with minced mutton or other meat. It may also be known as a shell pie.  The Scotch pie is believed to originate in Scotland, but can be found in other parts of the UK.

The traditional filling of mutton is often highly spiced with pepper and other ingredients and is placed inside a shell of hot water crust pastry. It is baked in a round, straight-sided tin, about 8 cm in diameter and 4 cm high, and the top "crust" (which is soft) is placed about 1 cm lower than the rim to make a space for adding accompaniments such as mashed potatoes, backed beans, brown sauce, gravy or an egg. 

Hot water crust pastry is commonly associated with pork pies and other rich, meaty pies. Hot water crust pastry is perfect for shaping into pie cases because the high quantity of water present makes it hard and strong. The pastry is baked until rich brown in colour and stands up well to wet and heavy fillings. Hot water crust pastry requires the fat to be ‘hot’ when added, rather than chilled as is needed for most other kinds of pastry.

                              

What you need for a hot water crust pastry

110g of lard

280g of water

500g of plain flour

2 teaspoons salt

            

Place the lard and water together in a saucepan and bring to the boil            

Sieve the flour into a large bowl with the salt            

Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the lard and water mixture.

Using a wooden spoon, mix thoroughly to form a dough

Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest for 20 minutes            

To use, lightly flour the surface and roll out to a thickness of 3mm   

If you don't have a tin then improvise ... get a fat rolling pin, go to the local men's shed borrow a saw and there you have it, improvisation at it's best.  

 

 

 

Filling

50 g finely minced beef or lamb

225g breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper, nutmeg or mace to season

But for me a bit of chilly would be helpful

Mix the mince with the breadcrumbs and seasoning.

Add a gravy to bind, and mix thoroughly

Fill the pie shells to 3/4 full.

Add the top and seal.

Using a knife, make a couple of cuts in the centre of the pie to allow the steam to escape.

Brush with milk to glaze.

Pre-heat the oven to 190 C.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Then sit back and watch the Footy.

Tomorrow England plays hmmmm someone else! see, told you I was more into the food than the footy, anyway we are all meeting at the hall in front of that big screen, hopefully a few more watches with a few more food options tomorrow being a English game. Sure the Scottish are only going hoping to see the English loose ... opps well that what I heard last night.

Sounds like no love over those 2 sporting boarders