So I’m still making the most of my foraged wild garlic. I will post my salt, oil and pickled buds next but I had to share these pork pies first as they were so delicious. Being British I love a pork pie but I’m not keen on the massive jelly layer or claggy pastry, so these worked perfectly. It was my first time at having a bash at hot pastry and it was much easier than I thought. I realised the key is to work really quickly. I made the mistake of making my filling after the pastry as I’m so use to letting pastry rest, however with this pastry it’s the opposite, it is much easier to work with straight away while it is warm. Next time I will make my filling first and also cut out my base and lids before. Making sure I lay the bases in the muffin tray first before filling. It is a scary thought making pork pie but trust me it is worth it. Me and P ate 3 in a row. We ate them warm too which worked so well and it reminded P of a pie his mum use to get from the butchers when he was small a typical London pie and mash. I adapted a recipe from twigg studios.

Ingredients (makes individual 12 pork pies)

For the filling

• 1 leek, washed and finely chopped
• 1 tbsp butter, for sautéing the leek
• 77g pack of cubed smoked pancetta, or 4 slices of streaky bacon chopped
• 1 tbsp English mustard powder
• 2 tbsp fresh black pepper, I’m Devonshire so I like pepper so you can reduce to taste
• 1 tsp sea salt
• Handful of wild garlic leave, finely chopped
• 4 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg, I freshly grated mine
• Good splash of Worcester sauce

For the hot pastry

• 375g plain flour, due to covid virus shortage of plain flour I used half strong bread and half plain
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 100g lard
• 40g butter
• 150ml (1/4 pint) hot water, just boiled
• 1 egg beaten
• Butter or oil spray for greasing

Directions

1. As mentioned in my intro start by making the filling first so pastry can be rolled and shaped straight away whilst warm. Heat a tbsp of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chopped leek and sweat without browning for about 8 minutes until soft. Tip into a mixing bowl, add the rest of the filling ingredients and squish with your hands so everything is evenly mixed.
2. Pre heat oven to a 160 degrees fan.
3. Measure out the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. In a saucepan over a medium to high heat, add the butter, lard and just boiled water. Heat until melted, swirling so it doesn’t boil.
4. Once the butter and lard has melted, pour into the flour. I could handle mine straight away, if too hot for you leave until you can knead together. Once you have kneaded into a soft dough ball. Tip onto an oiled or floured surface. Roll the dough out quite thin mine was about 1/2 cm. grease a muffin tin.
5. I don’t have cutters so I used a pint glass for my bases and a wine glass for the lids (I will wash this later so I can enjoy a glass of wine with pie 😜). I also gave my bases a little roll so they fitted nicely in the tray.
6. Make all your bases first and line your muffin tray pushing the pastry gently into the corners and sides.
7. Add a large dollop of filling, pushing it lightly down then add the lid, pinching or crimping the edges together. Pierce a hole in the top then give them a brush of egg wash.
8. Bake for 50 – 60 minutes until golden. Allow to cool (if you can) and enjoy 😊