Pies for British Pie Week… And Every Week

We’re in the throws of British Pie Week – not that we need an excuse to celebrate pies, but it was as good a reason as any to gather our students in the kitchen for our All Manners of Pies cookery class.

Ghalid led us through pies of all sorts ranging from chicken and mushroom, beef and ale, and apple pie through to pasties. Our own salami-making-maven Charlotte was there to pass on a few notes.

Apple Pie. Brace yourself folks, this sweet pastry is 70% butter and enriched with egg yolk. Such a pastry is very tricky to roll so it was grated onto the top of the pie, looking exactly like Cheddar cheese! Amazing, and such a useful trick.

We made our own short crust which was then used to make the lids for our beef and ale pies and chicken and mushroom pies (Charlotte’s are the Hen & Cow shown above). We used the last piece of short crust to make a Cornish pasty. KEY TIP – do not over-knead short crust!

Ghalid made puff pastry look so easy and Charlotte promises she’ll be given it a try at home. If her puff pastry is as good as her salami, then we’re in for a treat!

Look out for our next All Manner of Pies class, coming soon on our cookery class calendar! 

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