Cornish Pasties

Hi, this recipe was surprisingly easy but we did have to make a few alterations with the quantities. The pasty recipe is from our '1000 Recipe Cook Book' and the pastry recipe I used was from 'https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/shortcrustpastry_1278'. I doubled the recipe of pastry but still had some of the pasty filling leftover so if you don't want any filling leftover, you can make some more pastry. The day after making this, I made another double quantity of dough and had enough mixture for 4 more pasties.

 Dietary Info:
-Contains Dairy (when you brush the tops with milk/egg, butter but we used a dairy-free one just because that's what we usually have)
-Contains Gluten (the flour in the pastry)
-Nut-Free / No nuts
-Not suitable for Vegan or Vegetarians

Ingredients:
-1/2 kg/ 1lb. Rump Steak Diced {We used Irish Beef and 600g not 500g. Also, make sure to fry in olive oil so that they are cooked before using}
- 2 potatoes, diced {Peel and wash before use as well and make sure to cut really small so that they are soft and cook inside the pasty.}
- 2 onions, diced {Cut to tiny pieces so that it cooks quicker}
- 1 small swede, diced {Peel and wash before use and we had a medium/large swede so I cut it in half and saved the other half for another time]
- 3Oml / 2tbsp beef stock
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 kg/ 1lb. shortcrust pastry
- 1 egg beaten (We used soya milk inStead just because I'd used it on my mince pies and knew that it made them a lovely golden brown}


Method: 
Preheat the oven to hot (220℃,200℃ Fan,425℉, Gas mark 7)Mix together the beef, {Remember to cut the pre-diced meat into smaller pieces and fry before using as the meat won't cook inside the pasty}, potatoes, onions and swede. Add the stock and season with salt and pepper. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into 4 circles. {I rolled it out cut it into 1/4's and then rolled each 1/4 into a circle.}. Put some of the filling into the centre of each one, dampen the edges with a little water and fold in half to form a semi-circle. Flute the edges with your fingers. {Essentially, squeeze the dough to make circles on the dough}. Lift the pastry onto a lightly greased baking sheet and brush with the beaten egg. Put the sheet into the preheated oven and bake for 20mins, or until the pastry is golden brown. Reduce the oven temperature to moderate (180℃,160℃ Fan,350℉, Gas Mark 4) and bake for a further 20mins.


How to make shortcrust pastry:
Ingredients:
-125g/4oz plain flour
-pinch of salt
-55g/2oz butter, cubed {I used margarine and just cut it and put it in not necessarily cubed}
-30-45ml/2-3 tbsp cold water

Method:

1:Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter.

2:Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that it does not become greasy.

3:Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together. 

4:Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 10-15 minutes before using. 

5:Alternatively using a food processor, put the flour, butter and salt in the food processor and pulse until the fat is rubbed into the flour.

6:With the motor running, gradually add the water through the funnel until the dough comes together. Only add enough water to bind it and then stop. 

7:Wrap the dough in clingfilm as before and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.