Mini Festive Chicken Pies

Ingredients

Filling
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 leeks sliced
2 tbsp flour
250ml chicken stock
3 tbsp creme fraiche
2 tsp English mustard

Salt, black pepper and cayenne to taste

1/8 tsp dried thyme
35g dried cranberries

70g cashew nuts
80g chopped chestnuts
80g crumbled Caerphilly

Pastry
250g plain flour
125g cold butter cubed
1 egg
1–2 tbsp water if needed

1 tbsp sage and onion seasoning

Method

1. In a saucepan melt butter and oil then fry the leek and garlic until they soften. Add chicken and cook for a further five minutes until sealed, then add flour stirring until well combined, followed by chicken stock slowly, until the sauce has thickened. 

2. Next add creme fraiche and mustard, then season and remove from heat and stir in cranberries, nuts and cheese.

3. Roll out pastry until a little thinner than a £1 coin. Cut out 8 x 9cm circles and use to line 8 holes of a muffin tin. Divide chicken filling between moulds.

4. Cut out 8 x 7cm circles to make tops for the pies. Lightly brush edges of the pie bases with egg, place each top onto its pie and press down into the filling. Pinch together the sides to seal. 

5. Leave to rest in the fridge for 30 mins, or up to 2 days if preparing in advance.

6. Heat oven to 200ºC /180ºC fan. Brush tops with more egg and bake pies for 30-35 mins or until the pastry is crisp and golden. Serve warm or leave to cool.

Status

To be cooked for Christmas Day - kind of made it up, so may adjust filling recipe as I go along!

Apple Suet Pudding (Apple Dick!)

Ingredients

300g SR Flour
10g Baking powder
150g Shredded Suet
1 tsp Mixed spice
75g Caster sugar
200g Bramley apple (diced)
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
200ml Milk

Method

1. Mix together the dry ingredients with the apple and lemon zest.

2. Pour in 185ml of the milk and stir together, adding more milk if necessary to get a binding / dropping consistency (the wetter the mix, the lighter the sponge).

3. Roll the mix into a 15-20 cm x 5 cm diameter cylinder – wrap in buttered greaseproof paper, with a fold to allow space for the sponge to rise, and tie the paper at both ends.

4. Put in a hot steamer and cook for about one hour. 

5. Remove the paper and slice the pudding into portions – serve with custard.

Status

Cooked now- colloquially title 'Santa's Dick' as a Christmas dish in a gastropub - made a half size version - texture good, but not sweet enough and the lemon didn't work for me, would add some dark brown sugar next time, some more cinnamon, and leave out the lemon!