The filling for these is really simple, with only two key ingredients. They are meat-free (although you could make them with meat), but do feature pigs. The hot-water-crust pastry follows very different rules from normal pastry – don’t be afraid to handle it a little more than you would shortcrust. Serve these with gravy, mash and greens – or just as picnic pies.
Prep time: 10 min for pastry, 25 min for filling, 15-20 min for shaping
Bake time: 35-45 min
Makes 12 mini-pies
For the filling:
5 meat-free sausages
3 medium red onions, chopped
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp light brown muscovado sugar
For the hot-water-crust pastry:
280g salted butter, softened (to make vegan, replace with 230g vegetable shortening and 2 pinches of salt)
420g plain flour
60g strong white flour
120g boiling water
1 egg (to make vegan, replace with non‑dairy milk)
Plus:
Gravy to serve, plus mash and greens (optional)
Grease a deep, 12-hole muffin tin.
Cook the sausages. Heat the oil in a pan, then add the onions and cook over a low-to-medium heat until soft and translucent (about 15 minutes). Add the vinegar and sugar and cook for five to 10 minutes, until dark brown and caramelised. Chop the sausages into chunks and add to the onions. Leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan)/200C/400F/gas mark 6.
For the pastry, cube the butter and rub into the flours with your fingertips. Pour in the water. Mix with a spoon until it balls together, then (once it is cool enough to handle) turn out on to a worksurface and knead by hand. It will look a little lumpy at first. Leave it to cool for five to 10 minutes, then return and knead it more until it becomes smooth.
Roll it out on a floured surface and stamp out circles that are big enough to line the holes in your muffin tin. Press the pastry into the holes and fill with the cooled filling.
Beat the egg, then brush the pastry rims. Stamp out circles to fit the tops of the pies, then use a fork to crimp the edges together. Brush with egg again, then cut out and stick on pieces of pastry for the pigs’ ears and noses. Use a chopstick or similar to make holes for the eyes. Make nose markings with a knife. Brush again with egg wash.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown. After baking, use the chopstick to make the eye holes bigger if necessary. Remove the pies from the tin after five minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack.
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