Hello Dear Reader,
For many years, I had no success whatsoever with normal pastry. I then saw the Hairy Bikers make pastry in a food processor and followed suit. From hence forth, I've never used my hands ever again. Maybe, I have hot hands or I'm heavy handed but any pastry I make by hand is inedible. I have no idea why, but my first few attempts at gluten free pastry were all handmade. You would think I would've learned my lesson and just got the food processor out. This time, I've used real butter and the food processor and there was no surprise but it was really good this time.
The recipe I used was
300g of Dove's gluten free flour
pinch of salt
150g cold butter in cubes
1 teaspoon of Xanthum gum
1 beaten egg
water to bind if required.
- Add flour, salt and Xanthum gum to FP
- Add butter
- Pulse until breadcrumbs
- Add egg - pulse - this maybe all the fluid you need
- Add drops of water if required, trickle into the FP whilst pulsing
- When big lumps stop and place on floured board
- Shape into a dough and chill - the longer the better
I cooked braised steak yesterday, purposefully cooking enough to have in a pie tonight. I also cooked enough potatoes and veggies to add to the meat and gravy and add the pastry to make a pie.
Cook the pie for 30 minutes at 180 degrees which is long enough to steam some spring greens. Having been pastry deprived this buttery, crumbly deliciousness was just what I needed.
I even managed a pasty with some spare veggies, a sprinkle of olive oil, some garlic and grated cheese. Dearly Beloved will have pie for lunch tomorrow and Friday and I will take half the pasty to work to eat over two days.
This is my fifth attempt to make GF pastry and I'm so glad it was edible this time! It also makes a really affordable meal to use leftover and make a pie for not just supper but subsequent packed lunches too. Here in England, a pie has meat! Steak and Kidney pie is my favourite!
Over to you Dear Reader, what do you like in a pie? What's special to your region? What pies are you eating in the US? Canada? Australia? NZ? France? Germany? or the regions of the UK? What do you have in your pies in Ireland? Scotland and Wales? Come and join in the pie-arty...........the more ideas the better!
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx