Festive Series: Christmas Dinner Pasties

 Hello there! And welcome to fourth part of my festive series! I wanted to do another food-related post, so today I will be showing you how to make some Christmas Dinner Pasties. I love going to Greggs this time of year and getting their festive pasty, and I thought, why not have a go at making my own? I couldn't find any recipes for this, so I worked out the portions etc as I went along, but I'm really impressed with how they came out! I'll say now that really I needed to put some more water into my pastry when I was making it, as the pastry was so crumbly and hard to work with. That being said although the final pasty could look neater, they still tasted really yummy and Christmassy, so I will be making them again but I will just make sure that I add enough water!

For the pastry:

-200g plain flour

-50g butter 

-50g lard/vegetable fat

For the filling:

-1 chicken breast

-sage and onion stuffing

-cranberry sauce

-half a potato

-handful of peas

Process:

-Cut up the chicken into small pieces and fry until cooked. Leave this to cool.

-Chop up half a potato into small pieces and boil for 5-8 minutes so that they are partially cooked. Boil some peas in with this. Drain and leave to cool.

-Whilst the chicken/potato/peas are cooling, you need to make the pastry. Put the flour, butter and fat into a mixing bowl and rub in together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

-Add some water to bring the pastry together (this is where I should have added more!). After looking on my Chocolate Orange Mince Pies recipe I said that 1tsp per 25g flour was the recommended amount- I clearly didn't remember this advice whilst making these! Be sure to use enough water! Once you have formed the ball of pastry, cover with a tea towel and leave on the side for 15 minutes.

-Whilst the dough is on the side, it's now time to make the stuffing! I bought a small packet of sage and onion stuffing mix and followed the instructions on the packet. Timings may differ depending on which mix you are using, so be sure to check before you start making your pastry. I didn't make up the stuffing when I was cooking the chicken/potato, as I didn't want the stuffing to get stodgy or get stuck in the bowl. 

-Here I would put your oven on to 200°C/392°F/Gas Mark 6.
-Once the 15 minutes are up, it's time to roll out your pastry! This is where I realised that it was really crumbly, but I did the best that I could with the mixture! To cut out the circle I just used a cereal bowl on top of the pastry and cut around this. 

-You can now start building up your pasty! At the bottom you need a layer of the stuffing. Next comes a layer of the cranberry sauce, before you put on some chicken/potato/peas.

-Once you have put your filling onto the pastry, you need to put a thin layer of water around the bottom edge so that the top has something to stick to. Fold over the pastry, and crimp the edges together using a fork. Prick a fork into the top of the pasty to let some air in.

-Place in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

-Take the pasties out and enjoy! These are great to eat hot once you've made them, or to cool and have for lunch another day. I've frozen a couple of them to have for lunch another day in the week!

 I'm really happy with how these pasties tasted; they really did have that Christmas dinner taste. As you're making them yourself you can interchange the ingredients for what you have for your Christmas dinner, so you could use turkey instead of chicken, or use bits of nut roast or some butternut squash bits would be nice if you are a vegetarian!

 I can't believe how quickly the festive series is going; be sure to come back next week to see the next part! If you make these pasties, or anything else from my festive series, be sure to let me know!

Love Jess xxx

Festive Series:

Christmas Coasters

Chocolate Orange Mince Pies 
Wooden Tree Decorations