Farmhouse pie
Author: Michelle Cowan and the Blagdon Bakehouse team at Blagdon Farm Shop
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
- For the pastry:
- 500g plain flour
- 250g unsalted butter
- 140ml water
- or 1 pack readymade shortcrust pastry
- For the pie filling:
- 1 tbsp oil for frying
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 125g streaky bacon, chopped
- 400g sausage meat
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 red apple
Method
- If you are making your own pastry, place the flour in a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb consistency. Mix in water gradually to create a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 mins before using.
- Preheat your oven to 190C/Gas 5 and grease a 25cm round pie tin.
- Take ⅔ of the pastry and roll out a disc to line the base and sides of the tin with an overlap. Take the other ⅓ of the pastry into a disc large enough to top the pie.
- In a frying pan, heat a little oil, add the onion and thyme and cook slowly over a medium heat until soft. Add the bacon pieces and cook through until it starts to colour. Set aside and when cool remove the thyme.
- Grate the apple into a mixing bowl, add the sausage meat and mix together. Mix in the bacon and onion mixture and season with salt and pepper.
- Press the filling mixture into the pastry case. Take the disc of pastry you have for the lid. Use a lattice cutter to turn this into lattice, or leave whole. Brush beaten egg around the rim and press down the pastry lid, forking the edges to seal and, if using a solid lid, pricking holes in it with a fork to allow the steam to escape during cooking. If you are using a solid lid and have any pastry scraps left over, cut them into leaves to decorate the top.
- Brush the top with beaten egg and bake for 45-60 mins.
- Serve hot or cold.