Cornish Pasties (16.5)

 

I'm sure the people of Cornwall would be mortified to see my pasties. They were not beautiful. But they were pretty easy to make. 

For the pastry, I measured the flour and salt, then gave it a quick stir. I cut in my fat of choice (lard) until it resembled "coarse crumbs". So far, it's just like making biscuits. 

In a small bowl, I combined the wet ingredients (water, egg, vinegar) until well combined.  I started with the minimum amount of water recommended(43g). This was drizzled this over the top of the flour mixture. I began to fold it together in the bowl. It was way too dry. In the end, I had to add the additional two tablespoons of water to get it to come together at all. Even then, I had to dump it out of the bowl and squish it together to form a ball. I divided it into 6 equal pieces, flattened them into discs, wrapped them in saran, and put them in the fridge. 

Then I began the filling. I grated and chopped up the parsnips and potatoes. I diced up my venison steak (which is super lean) into pretty small cubes. All of this was tossed with the thyme. 

I preheated my oven, put some parchment on a pan and grabbed my dough out of the fridge. This is where things got ugly. I am terrible at rolling. So by the time I got my dough to the required 8" across, it was more amoeba than circle. So  I had to flip a bowl and use that as a guide to cut the shapes into circles. Otherwise, they wouldn't pinch together into a pouch. 

Once they were rolled and filled, I wet the edges and attempted to crimp. Again, not my strong suite. And the dough was pretty thin, so I did get a few tears. 

I set them on the pan, scored them, brushed on the egg wash, and threw them in the oven. I didn't realize this until later, but I laid them flat on their back to cook. The picture has them sitting on the bottom to cook--so the ridges go across the top.  It's totally an aesthetic choice, so I didn't sweat it too much. 

I baked them for 25 minutes. They still looked blonde, so I gave them the additional 5. They were still blonde, but I pulled them anyway because a quick jab with a skewer told me the meat and potatoes inside were cooked perfectly, and I didn't want them to become mushy.  I just need to put less water in my egg wash next time, and increase oven temp. 

As you can see, the pastry is so thin, it cooked through, despite its coloring.  It was great, not tough, but not flaky either. Not too salty. It was a perfect vessel for the filling. 

the filling, however, was where the improvement needs to happen. I liked all the ingredients. I enjoyed the flavor of the thyme, though it could have used a bit more.  The issue was moisture, or rather the lack thereof. It was bone dry in there. And what would you expect with no liquid of any kind being added to veggies and lean meat? I know that soggy bottom is a real problem with pastry, but we have a gravy of sorts in pot pies, so can't we have one here too? Maybe this is an authentic recipe and they didn't include any liquid because it impaired portability. But portability is not a problem for me, so next time I'm adding a gravy!

Scores (out of 5): Dustin: 3.5. Breanna: 3 Michael: 3. James: 4. Andrew: 3. Total  16.5/25

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cornish-pasties-recipe