Baked suet pastry

[cherrytree Profile]

Last evening I made Felicity Cloake’s meat and potato pie. I used suet pastry and quite frankly the pastry was not very nice at all. The base in particular was so hard it was almost inedible. The filling was lovely enlivened further by some Henderson’s Relish that I bought specially.
I will make the pie again, but I think I’ll use shortcrust instead. The pastry will taste better too.j

[Earthmaiden Profile]

What a shame, Cherrytree.

I've never had the greatest luck with baked suet pastry and know that I will have reasonable results with shortcrust so gave up long ago. I wondered if it might work better with some, or all SR flour. I would never normally use SR in any pastry (even for mince pies etc) but a softer suet crust (as you get in a steamed pudding or dumpling) might be more pleasing.

[cherrytree Profile]

I was just disappointed. This pastry was made with plain flour which surprised me anyway as I’ve always used SR with suet. Hey ho, I’ll do it again some time but definitely with shortcrust. Thanks for the sympathy !

[Suffs Profile]

I've always used SR flour for suet pastry ... even baked ... and usually add a smidgeon of baking powder to it as well.

I don't think I'd use suet pastry for a 'hand held' pie ... for me the wonderful thing about using suet pastry for a 'slab pie' is the way the gravy soaks into the 'bottom bit' ... my ex Russian DIL makes a similar pie and says 'it's the law' that everyone has a second helping so they can have a piece of the bottom pastry as well as the top.

My point is that with a hand held pie you need a fairly dry filling or you'll need a bib and a face flannel at the very least, whereas with a slab pie you can have lots of lovely gravy soaked into the bottom bit. That would be much too messy for a hand held pie.

By the way, why did FC serve peas and gravy with her hand held pie? A hand held pie is just that ... to be picked up and eaten from your hands (on the terrace at a football match) not on a plate with a knife and fork.

[ZeroCook Profile]

I made her recipe a few days ago - posted on cooking thread - and made the pastry with frozen grated butter as have never liked suet. I thought it was really excellent. Crisp on the outside and edges, soft inside. It is a robust pastry. I made a cooked filling like Paul Hollywood's - I like very tender meat fillings. Baked total of just under an hour at even temp - 200°deg. I used souffle type dishes, not tins. No oven fan.

Not a 'hand' pie tho as I made mine (much) deeper than recipe 3cm.

I'm not a suet pastry expert and have only made steamed suet pastry and not baked before this. SR flour and/or bp would prob help.

I think Felicity's recipe cooking the filling from raw is a potential problem for the pastry if baked too long/hot. I try to focus on the pastry for most pies and go for cooked filllings when possible to get the pastry timing just right.

[Suffs Profile]

As far as I can remember, the only time I use a raw meat filling is for a steak and kidney pudding ... which I then steam for at least 2.5 hours ... and a Wellington of course. I’m trying to think of others...

[Suelle Profile Website]

Cornish pasties spring to mind as using raw meat in the filling.

[Suffs Profile]

Cornish pasties spring to mind as using raw meat in the filling.

Duh! Of course ... what am I thinking ... how could I forget pasties