With a moreish mushroom and leek filling and a rustic, golden pastry crust, these comforting pies are just what we're craving on a cold winter's night. Serve warm from the oven with seasonal vegetables, such as these maple and thyme roasted carrots and parsnips or lightly steamed tenderstem broccoli. Delicious.
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Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
55 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 25 mins
Cal/Serv:
679
Ingredients
75g
butter, plus extra to grease
2
medium leeks, finely sliced
125g
chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2
thyme sprigs, leaves picked
1tsp.
wholegrain mustard
40g
plain flour
250ml
milk
For the pastry
175g
plain flour, plus extra to dust
125g
light vegetarian suet
2
medium eggs
Directions
Step 1
Start by making the pastry. Put the flour into a food processor and add the suet and 1/2tsp salt. Pulse until well combined (alternatively rub the suet into the flour using your fingers). Add one of the eggs and 2tbsp water and whiz (or stir in with a blunt-ended cutlery knife) until the mixture just clumps together. Bring together into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30min.
Step 2
Meanwhile, melt roughly 1/3 of the butter in a large deep frying pan and gently fry the leeks for 10min until completely softened. Turn up the heat and add the mushrooms - cook until any water released by the mushrooms has evaporated. Stir through the thyme and mustard then empty into a bowl and set aside.
Step 3
Return the empty pan to the heat and melt the remaining butter, then stir in the flour and continue cooking and stirring for 30sec. Take the pan off the heat and gradually add the milk, stirring well after each addition. Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring, until thickened. Mix in the mushroom mixture, check the seasoning and set aside to cool completely.
Step 4
Preheat oven to 190°C (170°C fan) mark 5. Thoroughly grease 4 x 200ml ramekins with butter. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pastry until its 3mm thick. Use pastry to line the ramekins, leaving 1cm overhang over the top edge of the ramekins (reroll trimmings if needed). Spoon in the cooled filling, then fold any overhanging pastry over the filling.
Step 5
Lightly beat the remaining egg and brush over the visible pastry in the ramekin. Roll out remaining pastry as before and stamp out round lids to match the ramekins. Lay on top of the filling and press edges lightly to seal. Cut a small cross in the centre to allow steam to escape and brush the lids with beaten egg. If you like, cut out some festive shapes from thinly-rolled pastry trimmings and stick to the lid, then glaze with more egg.
Step 6
Put the ramekins on to a baking tray and cook in the oven for 30min or until deeply golden. Allow to sit in ramekins for a few min, before carefully removing and serving.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
