Individual Christmas pies
This recipe for a stunning vegetarian Christmas alternative, can easily be reduced or increased to make as many as you need
🕗Prep: 1 hour ⏳Cook: 1 hour 🍽Serves 2-3
ingredients
For the pastry
Individual Christmas pies method
STEP 1: Gently fry the scallion in the butter until soothed. Add the mushrooms, mace, and thyme, and turn on the heat a little to allay the mushrooms and dispel any liquid that comes out of them. Agitate in the potato for 2 minutes, followed by the lentils, chestnuts, and cream. Cook for another 2 minutes, after that shut the heat and agitate in the 4 tbsp cranberries.
STEP 2: To prepare the pastry, add the flour and suet in a food processor including 1 tsp salt. Mix until you can’t see any big suet lumps, then keep pulsing while you include the milk, a spoon at a time until the pastry comes together.
STEP 3: Set up a quarter of the pastry on a lightly floured surface, now use 4 separate pie dishes to cut 4 pastry lids – we used 4 x 250ml ramekins. Take a small star for cutting a star, then keep stars and lids covered with cling film.
STEP 4: Cut 4 strips of baking parchment and use some butter to stick one in each pie dish, so the ends of the strips stick out each side to help you detach the pies when baked. Assemble lid scraps with the left pastry and cut into 4 equal pieces. Organize each to ÂŁ1 coin thickness and use to line each pie dish with an overhang. Split the filling between the dishes. Top each with a lid, and roll down the overhang to reach the lid. Take a fork to use its prongs to press and seal edges. You can now cover and chill the pies for up to 24 hours before baking.
STEP 5: Before baking, heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7. Graze each pie with whisked egg and bake for 30 mins. Uplift pies from dishes and set them directly onto a baking sheet. Meet 20 cranberries with the redcurrant jelly and divide between the star holes on top. Brush pastry stars with whisked egg, add a little thyme spring to each, now add to the pie baking sheet and place back in the oven for 5-10 mins, till the pies and stars are golden and crisp. Garnish each pie with a star on top and serve.
