Traditional Cornish Pasty

This is my mother's recipe for Cornish Pasties, made with a rough flaky pastry that uses the quick method.

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Total Time1 5

Course: Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: British

Servings:

Calories: 681kcal

Author: Fiona Maclean

600 g Plain Flour Sifted
400 g Fat You can use butter, lard, hard vegetable fat or margarine. I used 50/50 butter and lard as my mum did!
1 pinch Salt

Put the fat into the freezer and leave to harden for at least 45 minutes
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl
Grate the fat into the flour using a standard box grater. If it starts to stick you can dip it into the flour to make it a little easier to grate
Using a round-ended knife mix the fat and flour together
Now, make a little well in the centre and pour in about a tablespoon of cold water. Using your knife pull the flour and fat mix into the water till you have a dough, if necessary adding just a little more water.
Gently knead the mixture together. You are not trying to get all the fat mixed in, just to get a dough that you can roll out later on.
Cover with cling film and put in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour

Peel the potato and dice all the filling ingredients into small pieces. The meat chunks should be about 1/4cm square, the potato about the same and the onion as finely diced as possible Season well with lots of black pepper and just a little salt

Take the pastry out of the fridge and cut into four pieces
Roll out each piece into a round on a floured board. If you are not confident rolling out rounds, you can cut around a plate as a guide
Place filling along the centre of the pastry and brush the edges with egg
Pull up the pastry and crimp. I follow my mother and crimp along the middle, although I've been told a cornish pasty is crimped along the side
Place each pasty on a baking sheet and brush with the egg wash
Bake in a preheated oven at 200-220c for about 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 160c and continue to cook for a further 30-40 minutes till the pasty is golden brown and you can 'hear' the filling singing (sizzling a bit)
Serve with brown sauce and baked beans!