Five ingredients and a little rubbing, mixing and rolling, and you will have the most mouth-watering light and crisp pastry to surround your homemade meat pies. This pastry is enough to make one large pie, or around eight small pies, and I guarantee all your family members will be lining up to tuck right in!
How to make meat pie pastry: key tips
When you add the sour cream to the butter and flour mixture, mix it until the dough just comes together into a ball. Try not to overwork the dough or the cooked pastry will be overly dense, rather than beautifully light and flaky.
One reviewer had this tip to share: “I made this pastry in the food processor. Very easy to do and a very light pastry.”
A helpful tip, especially on hot days, is to wrap your pastry in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before rolling out. This will firm it up and make it much easier to roll out without risking it being too soft and breaking up. If you leave it too long in the fridge, however, it will be too firm to roll out and you will need to leave it to soften a little at room temperature.
Key ingredients in this meat pie pastry recipe
When making pastry, it’s super important to make sure your ingredients are as cold as possible to prevent the butter from melting before it makes it to the oven, as butter is the secret to your flaky pastry (see notes, below).
Sour cream is another secret ingredient in this particular recipe. When you add sour cream, you add moisture that is surrounded by fat. Both the fat in the butter and the fat in the sour cream help to keep water molecules away from the protein molecules, and this results in a lighter pie crust.
Now you have the pastry, you need the pie! Here are a stack of Australia’s favourite meat pie recipes. And I love this cheat’s beef stew pie that uses leftover stew for the filling. Talk about quick and easy!
This recipe was originally submitted by Sylvia Mac, a member of the Australia’s Best Recipe community. Introduction and additional recipe notes by Natasha Shaw.
Ingredients
- 125 g plain flour
- 100 g unsalted butter chilled
- 60 g sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk to coat
Method
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Step 1Work butter into the flour using fingers, until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
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Step 2Add the sour cream and mix to a dough.
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Step 3Roll out on a floured board.
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Step 4Top pies and brush with milk.
Equipment
- 1 pastry brush
Recipe Notes
How do I use this meat pie pastry?
If you’re using this pastry for the lid of a meat pie only, cut out the pastry to the size you require for the top of the pie. Brush the top edge of the pie dish/tin with a little milk, egg or water, then place the lid on top. Use a small sharp knife to make a few slits over the pastry to let the steam escape as the pie cooks, so that your pastry doesn’t become soggy.
If using this pastry to also line your pie dish or tin, it will need to be blind baked before adding the filling. Here’s how to blind bake pastry.
How does rubbing the butter into the flour create flaky pastry?
As the butter that coats the flour melts during baking, it leaves air pockets in the dough. These air pockets fill with steam and then expand, creating those luscious layers of flaky pastry crust.
How big a pie can I make using 1 batch of this meat pie pastry?
The pastry will be enough to cover the base and lid of a pie when using a 22cm pie dish.
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