Pastry Week for the next GBBO episode means bakers will be tackling choux pastry, doughnuts and a tricky Turkish technical. Having already made doughnuts, I turned my hand to pastry.
Mine isn’t a delicately designed showstopping pie, but it is a tried and tested recipe by one of my baking heroes and it is chock-full of a flavoursome filling that will guarantee empty plates all round.
For this week’s Bake Off I made Samosa Pie by former Bake Off contestant Nadiya. You can see her recipe here.
Since winning the sixth series in 2015 she’s become one of the nation’s baking darlings and celebrity cook with a vivacious personality. I baked Nadiya’s samosa pie and found it easy to make.
Hot water pastry is probably one of the easiest pastry recipes to make, because it is so forgiving. Don’t be scared of pastry, I was unnecessarily wary of it until a few years’ ago.
Recipe for Samosa Pie
Utensils:
Ingredients:
For the filling:
5 tbsp olive oil
3 small onions, finely chopped
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp garlic granules
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp dried red chilli flakes
500g/1lb 2oz lamb mince (I used turkey mince as I prefer this to the flavour of red meat)
500g/1lb 2oz potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
200g/7oz frozen peas
2 tbsp cornflour
Handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
For the hot water pastry:
265g/9½oz plain flour
55g/2oz strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
135ml/4½fl oz boiling water
65g/2¼oz vegetable fat
1 free-range egg, beaten, for glazing (optional, I used a milk glaze for mine)
Method
- Make the filling first by heating oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions and salt and cook until soft and translucent. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Add the ground ginger, garlic granules, cumin seeds and chilli flakes and cook for a few minutes. Add the lamb mince and cook until it is browned.
- Stir in the potatoes, then reduce the heat to low–medium, cover the pan and steam-cook for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.
- Add the frozen peas and cook them through.
- Stir in the cornflour – this will help to thicken any juices left at the bottom of the pan. Take off the heat and stir in the chopped coriander. Set aside to cool completely. The filling needs to be totally cold.
- Preheat the oven to 180C Fan. Have ready a 20cm/8in round loose-bottomed cake tin.
- For the hot water pastry, put the two flours into a bowl with the salt and turmeric. Mix well, then make a well in the centre.
- Put the water and fat into a pan and heat until the fat has melted. Pour into the well in the flour, then mix, using a palette knife. As soon as the dough is cool enough to handle, get your hands in and bring it all together.
- Lightly dust a work surface. Set aside one-third of the dough for the top, and roll out the other two-thirds to fit the base and sides of the cake tin, with some overhang. Line the inside of the tin with the pastry, making sure to leave the extra hanging over the edge.
- Fill the pastry with the samosa filling.
- Roll out the rest of the pastry to make the top. Press the edges together, making sure they are sealed. Crimp the edges to totally seal the pie.
- Brush with beaten egg and pierce a hole in the centre so the steam can escape, then bake for 1 hour.
- Leave to cool completely in the tin, then remove and cut into slices.
Tips
- Make the filling the day before if you can, that way you’re not waiting around for it to cool.
- Use leftovers up by slinging into the pie. I added a few spoonfuls of leftover tomato curry into mine to save food waste.
- I used turkey mince instead of lamb mince. If you wanted to, experiment with alternative mince.
- Measurements are so important in pastry so follow the recipe closely. Pastry always feels either too dry or too wet in the first five seconds. Don’t worry, be patient and have faith, your pastry is going to be amazing.
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