Mini Broccoli and Cheese Pies

 Hello there! Today it is time for another baking post, but this one will be different as it is savoury rather than sweet. I am a massive fan of broccoli, and so any recipe I see that features this as a main ingredient I have to try! My mum found this recipe in a magazine, but we adapted it to our own tastes and so here is the final result. This was a joint effort and I always enjoy baking with others! They were super yummy both out of the oven and cold for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

300g Plain Flour, 75g lard and 75g butter to make the pastry (or 1 block of ready made shortcrust pastry)

1 broccoli

3 eggs

150g Gruyere

30g Cheddar 

30ml double cream

150ml milk

salt and pepper

 To start with, make the pastry by rubbing the fat into the flour, adding a small bit of water and combining to make a dough and then leave this to chill. Just before the pastry is ready you can preheat your oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and lightly grease your muffin tin with some butter. 

 Once the pastry has chilled, you will need to cut this into 12 pieces. Roll out these pieces to about 2-3mm thick, and cut out your circle. The recipe said to cut out a circle just bigger than the hole in the muffin tin, but we found they needed to be bigger than this. We used this plastic lid, as the circle needs to be able to sit comfortably in the tin, with enough pastry at the side to hold the contents that you will be pouring in later. 

 Once you have rolled out the circles, place them into the tin and press down to ensure the bottom is completely covered. Then take a fork and prick the pastry all over. Using some greaseproof paper you will need to cut out another 12 circles that are the same size as your pastry circles. 

  

 Pop the greaseproof paper circles over the pastry, and then bake blind for 10-12 minutes. You can get special beans for this purpose, but we just put in some dried kidney beans and they worked the same! When ready remove the beans and place the tin back into the oven for a further 3 minutes as this will avoid those soggy bottoms- and we know how much Paul Hollywood hates those! Leave these to cool.

 

 While the pastry is cooking, you can make a start on the filling. To begin with you need to cut off about 15 broccoli florets and blanch these in salted boiling water for about a minute, and then drain. 

 Next grate your Gruyere and place in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs, milk, cream and salt and pepper, and whisk to combine.

 You now need to pour the creamy filling into each of the pastry cases, leaving room for the custard to expand whilst in the oven. We have a spoon that has a spout shaped edge to it- but using a jug would work just as well. 

 Once each case is full, you need to add one broccoli floret into each pie.  You can then sprinkle your Cheddar over the top- the recipe says to use Parmesan but as I don't like this we used Cheddar instead!

 Bake these for 15-20 minutes, or until the custard is set and the pastry is golden. You need to then leave these to cool for a little bit, to ensure that it sets!

 We had ours with a bit of salad on the side, and they were honestly so good that I will have to make some more again soon! These are the perfect thing to make at a weekend, as you can have them for your evening meal, and then use them for lunch during the week.

 As always I would love to see these if you have a go at making them! I think this is great as the actual filling can be changed completely depending on what you want to do- I think this would be great for a salmon and dill filling too. 

Have you baked anything recently that you think I should have a go at making?

Love Jess xxx