Hot Water Crust Pastry is probably most commonly used for making Pork Pies , Gala Pie & Game Pies. This pastry is made by heating the water and melting the fat in it before adding the flour to the liquid. This pastry is ideal for pork pies as it can hold a wet filling together, such as pork meat & Jelly.
This Pork Pie is made with minced pork & homemade jelly.
So if you are unsure of how to make a delicious pork pie then this is where you start, by making a hot water crust pastry. Here are the ingredients you are going to need to make this :
- 475 g Plain Flour
- 125 ml of Boiling Water
- 75 g of Butter
- 100 g of Lard
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Egg Wash
Most people are put off making this pastry because they assume it is going to be difficult much the same as choux pastry, but it is surprisingly easy and fun to make.
Start off by bringing the water to a warm simmer and adding the Lard & Butter so that it melts. Mix the salt into the flour in a seperate bowl.
Once the lard has melted in the water and it is simmering add it to the flour and mix it in with a fork. Once the mixture has cooled down a bit get your hands in and form it into a dough. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and kneed for a few minutes. flatten the dough out , cover and leave at room temperature.
When rolling out the pastry, be sure not to roll it too thin. The pastry needs to have some body to it so that it is thick & crusty when baked.
It depends what you are going to use this pastry for , if you are going to make pork Pies or a Gala or Game Pie then you are going to need to get this pastry rolled out. For pork pies you will need to cut round out of this pastry or line a rectangular cake tin with a sheet of this pastry if you are going to make a Game pie or a Gala Pie.
Gala pie's and Pork pies require a rich jelly that encases the meat, and you can make this in a few different ways. The beauty of this pastry is that it will hold the jelly in it's liquid form and the jelly with also be absorbed by the pastry as it cools and solidifies.
Below you can see how I have used a saucepan lid to cut out the Pork Pie cases.
Here I am using a 7" saucepan lid to cut out rounds for Pork Pies.
These cases should fit perfectly into a standard size pudding tin, which is what I have used to make my pork pies. You can experiment with this a little if you want to use a smaller or a larger tin.
As you can see here , I have fitted the pastry round into standard muffin tins.
If you want to see the full Pork Pie Recipe you can find it here.
Pork Pies made with this Hot Water crust Pastry are delicious but don't forget you can make lots of other dishes with this pastry and other pastries.
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