Chicken, Mushroom, and Bacon Pasties

Jeordy and I recently returned from spending the winter period on the cold beaches of Devon and the experience gave us both a taste for the very English Pasty.

The Pasty, known as a Cornish Pasti, was traditionally enjoyed in Cornwall. However, today the delicious savoury pastry has become associated with almost the entire South Coast of England. Originally created for minors to eat at work, a pasty is a small meat pie that is sealed with a puff pastry lip. The crust/lip gave coal covered minors something to hold on to and throw away. Unfortunately for these minors the crust is one of the best parts of a pasty.

In my quest to make family favourites from Fish and Chips to Pizza at home or from scratch I decided to make small pasties that could be eaten as snacks or small lunches between libraries and lectures. Unlike the traditional cornish pasty consisting of beef and onion I open for a chicken, mushroom and bacon pasty.

Ingredients:

-250g Chicken breast.

-250g Chestnut mushrooms.

-4 rashes of bacon.

-4 spring onions.

-1 tbsp Dijon Mustard.

-200ml single cream.

-300g of Puff Pastry.

-1 egg.

-2 tbsp flour.

(This Recipe makes 2 very large pasties or 6 rather small ones.)

First thing first, I cut everything up into small chunks. I cooked the chicken first until white in the middle and brown on the outside. When cooked through I removed and allow to cool.

Next, I added the bacon and the spring onion to the pan and cooked until the bacon had turned a little crispy.

I then began to make the creamy filling. I added the mushrooms to the pan and allowed to fry until brown. I then added the cream in with the mushrooms and mixed well.

~Tip: This also makes a great and very simple creamy mushroom sauce that goes excellently with steak~

Once the mushrooms and cream were mixed I slowly added flower and continued to mix. The creamy filling needs to be stodgy rather than liquid or else it will simply pour out of the pasty. I kept adding flower until a more solid and well mixed cream sauce was created.

I then re-added the bacon, spring onions and chicken to the pan and mixed well. At this point i seasoned with a good helping of salt and pepper. The mix may not look the most appetising with a creamy brown colour but the taste is wonderful.

After making sure it was well mixed i took the pan of the heat and put it aside.

I then measured out and rolled the puff pastry so that it was just thiner than a £1 coin. I then had to find a round object that would be the right size to enable me to make 6 small pasties from the pastry.

Luckily, Jeordy came to my aid and (as per usual) saved the day by finding a rather large tea cup. We cut around the cup and created 5 circles with pastry left over.

We rolled up the remaining pastry, rolled it out and created another circle. There was still pastry leftover which I reserved for later.

For the next step I filled the pasties. I placed just over a tablespoon of mixture onto one side of the circle. I then folded it over like a taco and pinched the edges together.

This is not an exact science so some were certainly more full than others. I did however try not to fill them too much as the pastry is so thin at this point. With the extra pastry leftover I made long rolls of dough and placed them around the pinched seal of the pasty to create the crust. I repeated this process with all 6.

I placed the pasties onto a baking tray and coated the tops with egg to make sure they turned golden brown.

I then placed them in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 200 degrees celsius (400 Fahrenheit).

I checked them after 20 minutes and then left them for a further 10 to turn crisp and brown.

The result was six pipping hot, crisp pasties. The pastry was light and the mixture was tasty. Unfortunately the delicious treats which were meant to have lasted us for a few days at uni were all gone within 24 hours. Ce la vie.