Doing the usual late night scroll through Instagram I came across a dairy and egg free recipe for a Cornish pasty and I have to say that night the baked good featured heavily in my dreams. Oh what my life has become! It dawned on me in the morning that my two little pickles had never had the mouth sensation that is a pasty! Please don’t call Childline or the NSPC or the RSPCA just yet, we went straight to work setting the matter straight. Or rather I popped their kindles under their noses and set myself to work.

A few months back I’d already managed to get a savoury shortcrust recipe down pat, after many failed attempts, one resulting in nearly loosing a tooth! So it was just a matter of making sure the filling was tempting enough for my little ones to want to try it.

I decided to go with a non confrontational vegetable and onion gravy filling, at least then if one of them decided to throw it at my head mummy vegan could eat the remains. You could go with a spiced vegetable curry or classic cheese an onion but this was my weapon of choice so I stuck to it.

Once your chosen filling is cooked you need to make sure its cold before you put in on your pastry or you pastry will melt before it goes in the oven. So best to get this part out of the way first and chill while you are making your pastry.

For the pastry you can use a fancy cake mixer and use the paddle blade, I have in the past, but its a faff, and this recipe doesn’t really need any hefty equipment, all you need are a bowl, some scales and your hands.

In the past I used to replace ‘Normal’ Plain flour for Gluten free plain flour and I’m telling you now bricks are easier to chew! Don’t get me wrong Gluten free Plain flour has it’s uses but not in pastry unless you need a roof tile replaced and your on a budget!

you need to use Gluten Free self raising flour, I went for my usual Doves Freee Farm, better the devil you know. You also need Corn Flour and again I opted for Doves Freee Farm. The cornflour helps with the texture of the pastry. Finally you need a good quality dairy free butter preferably high in fat, or vegetable shortening.

Gluten Free flour is incredibly delicate and hard to work with, so you have to not rush when rolling the dough out. I roll my dough out on cling film and then use that to fold the pastry over itself to encase the filling. It really doesn’t like being touched by mortal hands!

Ingredients for the pastry
200g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
2Tbp Corn Flour
100g Dairy Free Butter
pinch of salt

Ingredients for the filling
Half and onion diced
Handful of mushrooms diced
handful of spinach washed
half a sweet potato diced into small cubes
Allergy safe gravy
garlic powder
olive oil

Recipe for the filling:
1) In a thick based pan gently sweat your onions, mushrooms and sweet potato in the olive oil until soft, roughly about 13minutes.
2) Add the spinach and garlic powder and stir untill the leave have wilted
3) add the gravey and stir until combined. set aside to cool

Recipe for the Pastry:
1) Sift the flour and corn flour together in a bowl
2) Add the butter and rub the mixture between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs
3) Add the salt and stir
4) Add 3-4tblsp of water and mix to a firm dough
5) wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge of at least an hour

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC
2.  lay out your cling film and gently flour the surface and your rolling pin
3.  Divide the pastry evenly into four
4.  Gently roll the pastry to about half the thickness of a £1 coin
5.  Cut you pastry into a large rectangle and remove the trimmings
6.  Place roughly 3tsps of filling onto the pastry slightly off centre, dampen the edges of the pasty with Dairy Free Milk and using the clingfilm carefully cover the filling.
7.  Using a fork gently seal the edges and place on a parchment lined baking tray.
8.  Repeat with the remaining dough
9.  gently brush Dairy Free Milk over the pasties and make small slits for the steam to escape.
10.  Place in the oven for 25- 30minutes.

 

Enjoy!!