— Serves 4
You can mould your pie crust with a wooden structure called a dolly (available from cookshops), or use a pie tin with a 9.5cm diameter.
Ingredients
For the hot water crust pastry
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g strong white bread flour
40g cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice
50g cold lard, chopped
100ml water
¼tsp fine salt
1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze
For the filling
150g good-quality sausage meat
150g minced pork
100g pork loin, cut into 1cm dice
2 shallots, finely chopped
½tsp ground mace
¼tsp fine salt
A good pinch of white pepper
2tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
For the jelly
½ chicken stock cube
150ml just-boiled water
2 sheets of leaf gelatine
Method
Preheat your oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6 and line a baking tray with parchment. To make the hot water crust pastry, combine the flours in a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Put the lard, water and salt into a saucepan and place over a medium heat until the mixture just begins to boil, then immediately pour onto the flour and mix with a wooden spoon.
Once cool enough to handle, tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Cut off a quarter of the dough for the lid and set aside (ideally in the still-warm pan used to heat the lard mix).
Working quickly (while the pastry is still warm), flatten the larger ball of dough with the palm of your hand. Take a 9.5 x 11cm pie dolly, dust with flour and sit it in the middle of the dough.
Use your hands to raise the pastry up the sides of the dolly. Once you are almost halfway, turn the dolly upside down and work the pastry down the dolly until the pastry covers about three-quarters of it. Trim the edge to neaten and leave it to set slightly.
To make the filling, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and shape into a cylinder, slightly smaller than the pie case on the dolly. Roll out the remaining pastry to a 12cm circle for the pie lid.
Use a small knife to ease the pastry case from the dolly then fill the cavity with the meat filling. (If the pastry falls down, just mould it up again over the meat.) Brush the top edge of the pastry with beaten egg yolk and place the lid over the filling. Press the edges together to seal and trim off the excess.
Carefully lift the pie onto the baking tray and cut a small hole in the lid to let steam out. Brush the pie with beaten egg. Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown.
To make the jelly, dissolve the stock cube in the just-boiled water in a bowl. Soak the gelatine leaves in a dish of cold water for a few minutes to soften. Lift out the gelatine, squeeze out any excess water, then add to the stock, stirring to dissolve.
Insert a funnel into the hole in the top of the pie and gradually add the gelatine mixture to fill the cavity between the meat and the pastry – add a little at a time and let the liquid seep down before pouring in more. Once the pie is cool enough, place it in the fridge to set the jelly for a few hours, or overnight.
Recipe from A Baker’s Life: 100 Fantastic Recipes, From Childhood Bakes To Five-Star Excellence by Paul Hollywood. The book is availabe for purchase on Loot.co.za for R460. Click here to purchase.