Pork, chicken and cranberry pie

In the excitement of last year’s Great British Bake-off,  I rashly committed to baking all of the signature bakes.

Each week, I watched with growing dread to see what overambitious baking project I’d have to tackle next. I was fine with the drizzle cake,  iced biscuits and Yorkshire pudding,  and managed to turn out a passable chocolate babka.

But the thought of making Danish pastries from scratch stopped me in my tracks for months.

However, I’m nothing if not an “completer-finisher” (eventually)… Since the show ended, I’ve gone on to make lemon meringue pie and Swiss roll. And at long last… pork, chicken and cranberry pie.

Strictly speaking, I seem to recall the brief was individual meat pies, but it seemed simpler to make one large pie instead.

I followed a recipe from the show (Jane’s spiced pork pie with cranberries) but changed it to fully embrace the flavours of Christmas dinner – poultry, sausage meat, sage and onion stuffing, and cranberries.

For all my trepidation, it turns out pork pies are pretty straightforward to make. I had it in the oven in under half an hour.

The pie itself was delicious – the filling moist and flavourful, the pastry crisp and golden. It was prone to cracking when sliced, and there a bit of shrinkage during baking that created a slight gap between pastry and filling, but these are quibbles.

I’d happily make this pork pie again – maybe even have a go at making individual pies in a muffin tray.

Pork, chicken and cranberry pie

For the filling:

• 350g good-quality pork sausages (about 6), skins removed
• 125g bacon, finely chopped
• 50g fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 1 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tsp Marigold bouillon powder
• ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
• zest of a lemon
• 1 Tb butter, melted
• ¼ cup dried cranberries
• salt and pepper
• 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-cm slices

For the pastry:

• 575g plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 200g lard
• 220ml water
• 1 egg, beaten

1. Grease a 2-lb bread tin with lard. Preheat the oven to 375°F (180°C).
2. In a large bowl, add all the filling ingredients except the sliced chicken breast and mix well to combine.
3. In another bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
4. Heat the lard and water in in a saucepan over a medium flame until the lard melts. Bring the mixture to a boil, then pour it into the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine.
5. When the dough is cool enough to handle, set a quarter of it aside, then roll the rest into a large enough rectangle to line the loaf pan with a few centimetres overhang.
6. Pack a third of the filling into the tin, then cover with half the chicken. Add another third of the filling, the rest of the chicken, and a final layer of filling.
7. Roll out the remaining dough to make a lid. Brush the pastry edges of the pie with beaten egg.
8. Place the lid on top and crimp the two pieces of pastry together to seal. Make a hole in the centre of the lid to allow steam to escape. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg.
9. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the top is nicely golden and the filling measures 165°F (75°C) with a cooking thermometer.
10. Cool completely in the tin.

Tags: British food, chicken, Great British Bake-off, pastry, pork, tart