Short and Tweet Challenge 16: Light Cream Cheese Pastry and an Abundance of Pies
This week’s #shortandtweet challenge from Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet was for light cream cheese pastry as a pie topping for: Chicken and mushroom pies, pg 488; Shin of beef, chorizo and pinto bean pies, pg 489; Pork and parsnip pies, pg 491; Leek, smoked haddock and Lancashire cheese pies, pg 491; or Broccoli, Stilton and potato pies, pg 492. The opening photograph is from @Misky of Misk Cooks who baked it for her wedding anniversary dinner (further tribute to the excellent nature of these pies is almost superfluous).
There’s a shared nostalgia about pies that evokes an affection that seems at odds with pie consumption amongst #shortandtweet -ers (nobody confessed to a Gregg’s habit or regular visits to a take-away). When discussing pies on Twitter it seems that a number of us hadn’t baked or eaten them in years. None of us seems entirely sure why although I suspect that several of us had rarely baked them because of apprehensions about the fat content or the calories in combination with the perception that pastry is inconvenient and fiddly (Sustainable Table offers an overview of the history of pie and changing perceptions of it). So, I’m pleased that pastry’s reputation has been redeemed by this effortless recipe for light cream cheese pastry. The pastry stores well in the fridge or freezer and it is easy to roll. This pastry means that it’s easy to transform left-overs into a delectable pie which is a boon on any one of those evenings in the week when culinary ambitions were high, right up until the realisation that the journey home would take 3 hours rather than 90 mins or that somebody has the sort of homework that doesn’t allow for attention to be split between a maths-averse child, a large knife and several burners. Now that #shortandtweet -ers have re-discovered the delight of pies some of us plan to include them in our repertoire of regular recipes and meals.
Claire, @underthebluegum of Under the Blue Gum Tree, is leading the way to the domestic renaissance of the pie: she made all 5 of the pies despite some hiccups relating to the availability of ingredients in Johannesburg: Short and Tweet: Savoury Pies with Light Cream Cheese Pastry. Go and learn how she coped with the absence of some ingredients and substituted others; what her tips are and what won out in the overall taste stakes. Claire’s summary is wholly positive: “It really is the perfect pie crust: quick to prepare, easy to roll, cooks to a nice crisp on top whilst being rich with pie juice underneath. I also found that the dough keeps well for up to two days in the fridge. If not eating in polite company, then it is lovely to break off chunks of pie crust with your fingers and use it to scoop up the succulent filling beneath”.
@Misky of Misk Cooks provides a delightful report: Dan Lepard’s Chicken and Mushroom Pie with Light Cream Cheese Pastry–Short and Sweet Challenge. “I served Dan’s Chicken and Mushroom Pie for my 32nd wedding anniversary dinner. Now that’s a testament to how confident I am about the recipes in “Short and Sweet”. It never lets me down; never disappoints, even on an occasion like a wedding anniversary. Husband declared it delicious.” I’ve included an image of how the dough looks after it’s been kneaded smooth.
@Mitchdafish of Mitchadafish blog enjoyed her: Pie. @Mitchdafish offers good advice for anyone who doesn’t have pie plates: “Decided to make the pies in cereal bowls as that is all I had, here are the snaps: The dough was a dream, no sticking or crumbling. Went brown. Tasted delish. Perfect”.
@jerronimissus of Jerronimissus is gaining in confidence from week to week: Light cream cheese pastry for pie tops. Nicky declares, “This pastry is brilliant!”: and, “Everyone thought it was really tasty (yes, including Little E who I promised could have left overs the next day as she was most put out I was having friends round for dinner and she wasn’t joining us!) and it was an economical way to make a big tasting pie”. Nip across and admire the cute pie funnel.
@tomasi_carla and zeb share a dislike of the soggy underside of a pastry lid (a strong reason as to why some people don’t like pies, it seems). Nonetheless, intrigued by favourable reports of the pastry, Carla, opted to make up the pastry with her own tweaks (to make it flaky) and use it for a delightfully light pasty. I’ve Storifyed Carla’s account of leek, mushroom, spinach & parmesan pasty.
@Zeb_Bakes of Zeb Bakes likewise tweaked the recipe to produce a Quark Felin Ganol pastry pie that sounded delightful (Felin Ganol is the mill that produced a flour with which @Zeb_Bakes is experimenting).
My pies will remain veiled in obscurity until I can wrangle the camera’s memory card.
Overall, this pastry has been a substantial hit and may well become bakers’ preferred pastry for savoury pies.
Next week’s challenge recipes are just as comforting in a sweeter vein: choose one of the meringues on pg 445 (plain, Double chocolate or Lemon sherbert) which can be served plain or teamed with suitable available preserves (eg, chunky marmalade is a good contrast to the chocolate meringue shells); Apricot meringue tart pg 451; create your own sunshine in a jar by making easy lemon curd (pg 342) and assembling either the Lemon meringue sundae on pg 452 or Sue Lowenbein’s suggestion on the same page for an ice-cream gâteau that uses similar ingredients (substituting crème fraîche for ice-cream).
If you blog about your experience with a recipe, please post links in the comments or tweet pictures or links to @foodcraftspace or @evidencematters using the hashtag #shortandtweet - Thank you. It’s the same procedure if you don’t blog but just post a photograph of your work. Please send the links by 8pm 26 February or as soon thereafter as practical.
Schedule for the #shortandtweet March 2012 challenge.It’s apparent that #shortandtweet search doesn’t always show everyone’s tweets so I apologise if I missed any notifications - please let me know and I’ll update this compilation.
Thank you for sharing your delightful pies and I look forward to next year’s contributions.
