Mini Pork Pies, Very easy to make and delicious

Hello again, my name's John. I'm a retired cook from the north east of England in the UK and welcome to my latest video recipe. And in this one I'll show you how to make these amazing and delicious easy little pork pies. All you need is a few basic ingredients and a simple muffin tray. And if you don't use pork products you can replace the meat with ground beef, chicken or turkey. And once again I'll be making my very easy and popular hot water crust pastry for this recipe. You can view the ingredients list and full written method for this recipe on the recipe page on the channel's website. I'll leave a link in the description under the video or you can click on the i icon top right of the screen to take you directly to the recipe page. I'd also like to thank my Patreon, PayPal and Superthanks supporters for their very kind help in producing these tutorial videos. I'll be giving you all a name splash and shout out a little later in the video. Okay let's get on with today's recipe. I'll start the recipe by making the hot water crust pastry. Put the water in a small pan and bring it to a simmer. Now add the salt to the flour and mix it in. This hot water crust pastry is going to be the easiest and tastiest pastry you can make. Add the butter and lard to the hot water and stir until it melts. And like I said earlier, instead of using lard, which is a pork product, you can use a solid vegetable fat instead. Make a well in the flour and add the hot liquid. Using my trusty wooden spoon handle I'll bring it all together. At this point I'll swap to my bowl scraper to finish it off and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Now tip the dough out onto the bench and fold it together until you have a smooth ball. Try not to over mix at this stage. Using your bench scraper cut the pastry into two equal pieces. Individually wrap in cling film or plastic bags and place them in the fridge for at least two hours before you can actually use it, as it's way too soft to use at the moment. And to do my bit for the planet I'm using this biodegradable cling film. Right that's mine done and if you're making this pastry the day before, take it out of the fridge an hour before you start the recipe and that will make it a bit more pliable. On to making the filling. In the bowl I've got 500 grams, that's 18 ounces, of minced or ground pork with a 15% fat content. But like I said earlier, if you don't use pork products, use another meat instead. Time to add the herbs and spices and the first one is one teaspoon of dried sage. Second is a half teaspoon of mace. If you can't get it just leave it out. Also in this dish is a half teaspoon of dried thyme. Now a half teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of ground white pepper. Finally a pinch of nutmeg. You can use the processed ground nutmeg if you like but I prefer to grate mine in fresh. And the mace I added earlier is the ground outer shell of this nutmeg. And that's it. All you have to do now is give it a good mix with your hands. I'll quickly speed through the mixing process but in real time this takes about two and a half to three minutes to mix thoroughly. Once it's all mixed cover the bowl and this is another great use for using my dough proofing shower caps. Now get that into the fridge until we're ready to use it. Now lots of viewers have mentioned in the comments that they're having great trouble rolling pastry out evenly but this special high quality stainless steel rolling pin is the answer. The rolling pin allows you to roll the dough out to a precise thickness perfectly and consistently. It has different size spacers on each end varying from thick to very thin so it's virtually impossible to get it wrong. I'm so impressed with these pins that I've added them to the website shop. And like the caption says this is ideal for novices or professional bakers alike. And for these pies I'm using the one eighth or three millimeter spacer. Sprinkle a little flour on the bench. Place your now chilled dough onto the floured surface. If your dough is still a little hard from the fridge just squeeze and manipulate it for a couple of moments until it's soft enough to roll. And now sprinkle a little flour on the pastry. To get the right size for the base of the pies you'll need something in the region of 12 centimeters, that's five inches in diameter, to fit a standard size muffin tray. And all I have to do now is keep rolling until the fitted spacer hits the bench. It's impossible to go too far. Absolutely brilliant product. Right once you reach the required thickness start cutting out the circles for the bases of the pies. Dust each one with a little flour. Stack them up on top of each other. And for this recipe you'll need eight bases. Okay on to rolling out the pastry for the lids of the pies. To get the right size for the lids of the pies you'll need something in the region of six centimeters, that's two and a half inches in diameter, to fit a standard size muffin tray. And I'm going to use this ordinary cookie cutter which just happens to be the right size. Once all your circles are cut and stacked up keep a small piece of the pastry and this is for pushing the pastry down into the corners of the muffin cups. Any pastry that you have left can be re-wrapped and stored in your freezer for your next batch. Right I've had a bit of a clean up and now I'll divide the meat into eight equal pieces. And if you've stuck to the exact measurements each meatball should be around 63 grams, that's 2.2 ounces each. Now of course you can guess these measurements like some wild primitive or you can do it properly using digital scales. Right that's everything ready now it's time to put these beautiful pies together. Okay I've greased each muffin cup with lard but you can of course use butter, oil or solid vegetable fat too. I'll start by lining the cups with the base pastries and filling them with the meat. I'll show you how to do one and I'll do the rest off camera. Line your pastry up in the center and gently push it down into the tin. Use your little piece of pastry to force it down into the corners of the cup. This pastry is very forgiving, you can mould and shape it quite easily. If you do manage to tear a hole in it just repair it by using a little bit of water and a pastry patch. Once you're happy with it place your meat in and press it down. Traditionally the meat is thrown into the pastry to expel the air, I think I need a bit more practice at that. Right I'll complete the other seven and I'll be back to put the lids on. Before going any further preheat your oven to 170 degrees celsius, that's 340 fahrenheit or gas mark 3. Time to make up the egg wash. Put your egg in a container and give it a good mix with your mini egg whisk. Now brush your egg wash all around the lip of the pastry. Try not to get any between the pastry and the tin as it will stick when it's baking in the oven. Place your lid on and gently crimp the two pieces together as shown. And to make sure they don't come apart in the oven roll the tops of the pastry over like this. There you go, now that should be perfectly sealed. Grab a thin bladed knife and cut two vent holes in the middle of the pastry. Okay, I'll do the other seven and I'll see you in a moment. And that's it, all the lids are on. All you've got to do now is to egg wash them all. Once again try not to get any egg wash between the pastry and the tin. And the last job is to make sure all the holes are clear of egg wash. Now get these beauties into the preheated oven. Once they're in set your timer for 40 minutes. And while those are baking I hope you don't mind if I give my four recipe books a bit of a plug. The books have lots of our favourite recipes from our work kitchens in them. And also book four in this series is totally dedicated to bread recipes. And by popular demand the skeleton style oven gloves are now available too. Just click on the i icon top right of your screen and that'll take you to the website shop where all of these items are available now. Okay, time's up on the baking. And they look and smell absolutely amazing. So I'll get them out and let them sit on a wire rack for five minutes before getting them out of the tins. Right, they've been sitting for five minutes and it's time to get them out of the tins. The bottoms of the pies will not be stuck. And if the tops are get a thin bladed knife and gently cut around any burnt bits where the juices have leaked out at the top of the pastry. Okay, that's them all out. Now I'll give them another five minutes and when I come back I'll have a little taste. Right, time to see what they're like on the inside. They are still a little hot but the longer you let them cool the crispier the pastry will get. But as always I just can't wait and neither will you. Now these pies are fantastic hot but in my opinion better when they're cold with lots of brown sauce. And also these pies are wonderful for cold buffets and picnics. And here we go. And they are absolutely delicious. I really hope you try these guys. In my house they get a huge thumbs up from everyone. And as promised at the beginning of the video here is the latest list of my Patreon, Paypal and Super Thank You button supporters. And they are James Dowling, Gil Ramirez, Robert Crossland, Johnny Ponsoupseng, David Janssen, Lawrence O'Rourke, Patty Bitty and Rick, Julie Rimmer, Hunter, Tom Kennedy, Jenny White, David Van Reenen, Matthias Clayson, Leif Longfield, Mint Love, Wild World Weaver, User GU7PF3WH8X, Mike The Weaver923, Jens K3250, Marky Mark 6578, York HS2, User CZ3WE1VY5X and there's also two who wish to remain anonymous. Thanks very much guys. I really do appreciate all that you do in supporting the channel. Well thank you again for watching. Please like, share, comment and subscribe by hitting the circle above. If you do subscribe activate the bell icon next to the subscribe button on my channel page and by doing that you'll be automatically notified every time I upload a new video. And in the meantime here's a few of my other videos and playlists that you may want to watch. So until the next time be safe in your kitchen and bye for now.