52 Weeks of Baking: Week 1 – Cornish Pasties

Hi! Long time no bake!

So I’ve kinda lost my baking groove recently due to a million reasons I’m not gonna get into. But I really wanted to start baking along in the r/52weeksofbaking subreddit’s challenge to get back on track and start learning new stuff for a change. So here I am, trying to bake along with the 2022 challenge!

If you’d like to join, here is the link to the challenge! You can start at any point of the year. 🙂

Week 1

The theme for Week 1 was “New Year, New Recipe”. Since one of my other goals has been to try to bake through the Great British Bake Off’s technical challenges, I decided to combine them and make Cornish Pasties for the first time ever.

This is the recipe I used as a base. However, there are some minor adjustments that I personally would recommend, so I’ll add my own adjusted version down below.

Otherwise, I kept the recipe mostly the same. I tried to make half a recipe – so only 2 pasties. Also, I couldn’t really find a proper beef skirt from the local store here, so I used minced beef meat instead. I know it’s not QUITE the same but what can you do.

Overall, these turned out surprisingly nice given that I was making them for the first time. The dough needed more water than the recipe suggested, otherwise it was impossible to roll it out without crumbling. Additionally, the recipe suggests lowering the oven temperature after 20 minutes – I found the original 160°C to be too low. For me, the filling was nice and ready a long time before the dough got to the golden colour which made it a bit dry when eating. I would suggest lowering the temperature to 180°C instead.

Although I also realised that I forgot to put the butter in the filling. That may also have been the cause for the dryness… Oops!

P.S. I am also writing down all the Great British Bake Off technical challenge recipes and this one is included there – if you are looking for the short version of the Cornish Pasties recipe to do the GBBO Technical Challenge with time restrictions, go to this post. A full list of the technical challenge recipes is here.

Paul Hollywood's Cornish Pasties

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours

This is Paul Hollywood's Cornish Pasties recipe that was used in the Great British Bake Off as a technical challenge. I have very slightly adjusted it according to my own experience when making them.

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Ingredients

For the dough

• 450 g plain flour
• salt
• 115 g cold lard, diced
• 75 g cold unsalted butter, diced
• about 90ml ice-cold water

For the filling

• 1 large onion
• 120 g swede
• 1 large potato
• 400 g beef skirt
• 50 g butter

Instructions

1. To make the pastry, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the diced lard and butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in enough water to make a fairly firm dough, then knead briefly until smooth. Note: the dough should be on the firm side but you should still be able to roll it out without it breaking, so you may need additional water.
3. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. While the dough is chilling, slice the onion finely; cut the swede and potato into small cubes; keep each separate. Cut the beef into small, thin pieces.
5. Heat the oven to 200°C.
6. Divide the pastry into 4 equal pieces. Roll each out on a lightly floured surface to a 3mm thickness and cut out a circle. You can use a plate as a guide.
7. Scatter a layer of swede on the pastry semi-circle, leaving a 1cm border. Add a similar layer of potato and season lightly. Add the beef and season again. Add a final layer of onion, season and dot with butter.
8. Brush the pastry border with a little beaten egg or water, then close the lid of the pasty, making sure that the edges meet. Press together firmly and then crimp the edges together by pinching all the way round between your thumb and forefinger.
9. Fill and seal the remaining circles of pastry in the same way. Put them to the fridge to cool for 20 minutes.
10. Place the pasties on 2 baking trays and cut 2 small slits in the middle of each one. Brush with beaten egg.
11. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower the oven setting to 180°C and bake for 30 minutes longer until golden on top.
12. Enjoy while still warm!

Did you try this recipe?

Share your experience down in the comments or let me know on Instagram!