Sweet and savoury pies, from rich meat fillings to buttery fruit bakes.
All-butter pie pastry rests in two discs. The filling, a mix of apples (Bramleys for tartness and break-down, Granny Smith and Braeburn for hold), brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon, cornflour, pre-cooks slightly to release water and keep the crust from going soggy. Bottom crust lines a pie dish; filling piles in tall (it sinks); top crust seals on, vented. Egg-washed and sugar-dusted; baked until deep gold.
Elegant and portable apple turnovers with a fluted puff pastry edge, filled with cinnamon-spiced apple compôte, and finished with a caramelized icing sugar glaze. These individual pastries are sophisticated enough for elegant serving yet simple enough for everyday enjoyment, showcasing the timeless pairing of apples and cinnamon.
The toffee layer is the only stage that takes time: an unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk simmered in water for 3 hours turns into deep amber dulce de leche. The biscuit base is digestives crushed and bound with melted butter, pressed into a tart tin and chilled. The toffee goes on cold, the bananas are sliced just before serving (so they don't brown), the cream is whipped to soft peaks. Assembled in order. Dusted with cocoa or grated dark chocolate. Cut with a knife dipped in hot water for clean slices.
Australia's hand-held lunch and the unofficial national snack: hot beef gravy in a shortcrust base under a flaky puff lid, eaten standing up at the footy with tomato sauce running down your wrist. You build the filling like a thick gravy: minced beef cooked down with onion, beef stock, Worcestershire, tomato and a dark roux until it's sliceable when cool. The cold-filling trick is the one rule a pie shop never breaks: never fill a pie case with hot, loose gravy, because the bottom will go soggy in the oven and your pie will leak the moment you bite it. The chilled filling goes into shortcrust bases, gets a puff pastry lid crimped sharp at the edge, and bakes hot until the top is bronzed and shattering. Eat hot from the bag with a squeezy bottle of tomato sauce, or build a proper plate around it with mushy peas and gravy.
Buttery shortcrust rests then rolls; one disc lines a pie dish, fills with sliced spiced apples, the second disc tops it. Egg-washed, sugared, vented, baked golden. The juices thicken with cornflour as they cook so the bottom doesn't go soggy.
A British pub-and-cafe classic, the vegetarian counter to the meat pies on every menu from Pendle to Penzance. You cook onions slowly in butter until they're very soft and sweet (this is the only step that matters; rush it and the pie tastes raw), then bind them with mashed potato and grated mature cheddar so the filling slices cleanly rather than collapsing the moment a knife touches it. The pie sits in a shortcrust pastry case with a shortcrust lid, gets an egg wash for shine, and bakes until the top is deep gold. Eaten warm with HP sauce or pickled red cabbage on the side, often with chips and gravy if it's a proper pub plate.
The textbook British family dinner, the dish that turns up on every primary-school menu and most weeknight tables. You brown beef mince with onion, carrot and celery, then simmer it down with stock, a spoon of tomato purée, a slosh of red wine and a generous splash of Worcestershire into a thick savoury gravy. Top with cheddar mash piled rough so the peaks catch and crisp in the oven, and bake until the surface is deep gold and the gravy bubbles around the edges. Forgiving, freezer-friendly, exactly as good on Wednesday from leftovers as on Sunday from the oven. A green vegetable and a spoon of brown sauce on the plate, a bowl of trifle waiting in the fridge for after.
Sweet shortcrust pastry chills for 30 min. Filling: butter + flour make a blonde roux; trinity (onion + celery + green pepper) softens; crawfish tails + cream + tomato paste + Cajun seasoning + green onion finishes. Cool. Roll pastry; cut 10 cm rounds; spoon 1 tbsp filling on half; fold and crimp; brush with egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes at 200°C till deep gold.
A Louisiana hand pie, the Cajun answer to a Cornish pasty and the snack you'd buy at a Lafayette festival booth alongside a beer. You make a flaky shortcrust enriched with a little butter and lard (or all butter if you'd rather), cold and rested. The filling is a small batch of crawfish étouffée: a blond roux first, then the trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper, garlic, tomato, Cajun spice, stock and crawfish tails, simmered down until thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon. Cool the filling completely so it can be spooned into pastry circles, folded into half-moons, crimped sharp at the edge, brushed with egg wash and either deep-fried or baked. The fried version is the classic, with the pastry blistered amber-gold and the filling steaming inside. Eaten warm from the paper with a dab of remoulade and a cold drink.
Yellow-corn masarepa hydrates with water, salt and a pinch of paprika for colour. Beef mince cooks with onion, tomato cumin and oregano; cooked potato dices fold in for body. The dough divides; each ball flattens between two pieces of cling film into thin discs; filling goes in the centre; folded into a half-moon, sealed with damp fingers, fried.
A simple yellow dough (flour, lard or butter, water, salt, annatto or paprika for colour) rests cold while a picadillo-style ground beef filling cooks: sofrito, beef, tomato, olives, raisins, capers, cumin. Filling and dough chill separately. Rounds get filled, sealed with a crimped edge, and deep-fried until golden, blistered and hollow-sounding. Hot is best.
Chile's national pastry, the half-moon empanada that turns up at every Independence Day asado and most Sunday lunches. The pino filling is the dish's identity: knife-chopped beef (not minced - the texture matters), browned, then slow-cooked with three times its weight of onion until the onion melts into the meat and the whole mixture turns dark and sweet. Cumin, paprika, oregano and ají de color season it, and the filling rests overnight ideally so it firms up and slices cleanly. The dough is rich and buttery, made with flour, butter, lard, egg yolks, salt and warm milk. Each empanada wraps a generous spoonful of pino with a hard-boiled egg quarter, a black olive and a couple of raisins, then folds, seals, and bakes at 200°C until deeply burnished. Eaten with a glass of Chilean red.
Chile's cheese empanadas, the parties-and-snacks half-moon that's the lighter, quicker cousin of empanadas de pino. You knead a dough of flour, salt, butter, warm milk and an egg to a smooth pliable ball and rest it for thirty minutes. The filling is simplicity itself: cubes of queso fresco or mozzarella about a centimetre across, with a sprinkle of oregano. Divide the dough, roll each ball to a ten-centimetre disc, place a cube of cheese in the centre, fold into a half-moon, crimp the edges with a fork. Deep-fry in moderately hot oil for three minutes per side until deep gold. Drain briefly, eat hot before the cheese sets - the stretchy bite is half the pleasure.
The British family classic that turns up on a kitchen table on a cold Tuesday night, the one fish dish that even children who hate fish will eat. You poach a mix of fish (cod, smoked haddock, salmon, prawns) briefly in milk - just enough to set the flesh - then strain the milk off and turn it into a parsley-and-cheddar béchamel. The fish goes into a deep dish, the béchamel pours over to bind, and a thick layer of cheddar mash piles on top in rough peaks that catch and crisp in the oven. Bake until the top is golden and the sauce bubbles up around the edges. Eaten with peas or buttered greens, a glass of cold white wine, the kind of meal that turns the evening domestic in the best way.
Graham crackers (or digestive biscuits) crush fine, mix with melted butter and sugar, press into a 23 cm pie tin. Bakes for 10 minutes till set. Filling: 4 egg yolks whisk with sweetened condensed milk for 3 minutes till pale and thick. Lime juice (lots, about 150 ml) and zest whisk in. The lime acid begins setting the filling immediately. Pour into the crust; bake for 15 minutes till the filling has just-set with a tiny wobble. Chills for 4 hours. Whipped cream tops at service.
A Cornish-inspired pastry parcel filled with seasoned lamb, tender vegetables, and a rich, savory gravy. These hand-held pastries are perfect for portable meals, picnics, or as a sophisticated starter. The flaky shortcrust pastry encloses a deeply flavorful filling, a British classic that's remarkably easy to prepare at home.
A classic British-style meringue pie with a buttery shortbread pastry shell, sharp lemon-orange curd filling, and a towering cap of crisp-edged, soft-centered Italian meringue. This tangy and sweet dessert perfectly showcases the interplay of flavors and textures, from the crumbly pastry through the silky curd to the cloud-like meringue topping.
Crispy, buttery shortbread pastry encasing rich, spiced mincemeat studded with dried fruit, nuts, and brandy. A beloved British Christmas tradition, these miniature gems are equally good served warm with sherry or cold with coffee. The mincemeat improves with time, making these ideal for advance preparation.
A short pastry of plain flour, butter, margarine (the mix gives Nigerian pies their distinctive texture, flakier than all-butter, sturdier than all-margarine), a pinch of baking powder, salt and cold water is made and rested. The filling: minced beef browned with onion, garlic, curry powder, thyme and a stock cube, then a small dice of carrot and potato added and cooked through with a splash of stock and a touch of cornflour to give a thick gravy. Pastry rolls out 4 mm thick, cuts into 15 cm rounds; filling goes on half; egg-wash glues; crimp; egg-wash on top. Bake at 200°C 30-35 minutes until deep gold.
Pâte moulée is a rich, dense pastry traditionally used for raised pies and savory terrines. The high proportion of lard creates a tender, crumbly texture and rich flavor characteristic of traditional British charcuterie presentations. Its distinctive composition and handling technique set it apart from other pastry doughs.
Sweet shortcrust pastry is rolled into a 23 cm tin and blind-baked for 15 minutes (essential, an under-baked base goes soggy under the wet filling). Filling: dark brown sugar, light corn syrup (or golden syrup), eggs, melted butter, bourbon, vanilla and salt are whisked together. Pecan halves are arranged in concentric rings over the par-baked base; the filling is poured over. Baked for 40 minutes at 175°C until the filling has set with a slight wobble in the centre. Rested at least 2 hours before slicing (the filling firms as it cools).
The defining dessert of the American South, and a Thanksgiving table fixture from Louisiana up through the Carolinas. You blind-bake a simple all-butter shortcrust shell to a deep gold, then toast pecans briefly in a dry pan to bring out their oils before scattering them across the base of the cooled crust. The filling is whisked smooth from eggs, brown sugar, golden syrup (or corn syrup), butter, vanilla, a slug of bourbon and a pinch of salt, then poured over the pecans where it bubbles up between the nuts. Bake at moderate heat until the centre has just set with a slight wobble - rushing it gives a runny centre, overbaking gives a dry, granular one. Eaten warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a generous dollop of softly whipped cream, with the kitchen still smelling of toasted pecans an hour later.
Pork shoulder (uncured, fatty) and a small amount of bacon are chopped into 5 mm dice (not minced, the texture is key). Mixed with white pepper, mace, sage, salt and a touch of anchovy paste for umami. The hot-water-crust pastry: flour is mixed with hot water-and-lard mixture, kneaded warm into a pliable dough. Two-thirds of the dough lines a tall round tin (or is moulded freestanding around a glass jar); the filling is packed in tight; a lid of remaining dough is laid over the top with a 1 cm steam hole punched. Baked at 200°C for 30 min, then 160°C for another 60-75 min. Left to cool. A rich pork stock (made from trotters or with gelatin sheets) is poured through the steam hole while the pie is still warm. Refrigerated overnight to set the jelly. Sliced and eaten cold.
The custard is a one-bowl mix: roasted pumpkin (or good tinned purée), evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, and the four spices that define the pie (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove). The shell is an all-butter shortcrust, blind-baked briefly so the base does not go soggy under the wet filling. Bakes low to keep the custard silky rather than scrambled. Cools completely in the tin so it slices cleanly.
The lamb cousin of cottage pie, and the original of the two (cottage pie came later as a beef variant when lamb was harder to find). You brown lamb mince with onion, carrot and celery, then simmer with stock, tomato purée, Worcestershire and rosemary until the gravy is thick enough to hold a spoon upright. Top with garlic-butter mash piled in rough peaks that catch and crisp in the oven, and bake until the surface is deep gold. The lamb gives it a heavier, more savoury character than cottage pie's beef. That's what marks it as shepherd's rather than cottage. Eaten with peas, a spoonful of mint sauce on the side if you're being traditional, and a glass of bitter or a strong red.
The defining British pub pie, the dish you order when the weather is foul and you want the gravy to do something to your evening. You brown cubed chuck steak and ox kidney hard for colour, then braise the lot slowly with onions, mushrooms, a bottle of stout and beef stock until the meat is fork-tender and the gravy has reduced down to a glossy mahogany. The filling cools completely (essential; hot gravy in a pastry case is the surest way to a soggy bottom), goes into a pie dish, gets a shortcrust top crimped sharp at the edge, and bakes until the pastry is deep gold and the gravy bubbles up around the edges. Eaten with mashed potato, peas and a pint, the gravy spooned generously over.
The sweet potatoes are roasted whole until the flesh collapses and the sugars caramelise around the seam - never boiled, which dilutes them. The flesh is whipped warm with butter, evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a splash of bourbon (optional, but classical). Poured into a chilled all-butter shortcrust shell and baked low and slow until the centre sets with a faint wobble. Cooled to barely-warm and dusted with icing sugar, or topped with whipped cream.