The Big Christmas Pie

What do you associate with Christmas?

For me its family and food – as if you weren’t able to guess that!

 Before the age of this blog or website is when I started to collect recipes and didn’t even think about taking photographs, never mind writing about them in anything other than my own shorthand.

My kids are going to be so disappointed when the solicitor reveals that the main thing left to them, in my will, are a pile of soy sauce splattered hand written recipe books.

So, sorting through my recipes , deciphering the pencil scribblings and gathering them into a coherent pile so that others can understand them takes time. Organising them, making them and taking photographs that aren’t blurred takes more time.

  This Christmas Pie is straight from one of those books.

Let’s face it, who doesn’t want a large pie recipe you can bring out at Christmas that you can adapted throughout the year for other occasions? Usually occasions that involve the family.

This one is all about the taste of Christmas in one delicious bite, and this pie has it all. Layers of turkey, cranberry sauce, onions, bacon and stuffing. All wrapped in a short pie crust with the addition of gin to make it even more crisp.

No Soggy bottoms here.

Why do you need this pie in your life at Christmas? Thats an easy question to answer. Its a really good pie with a really good filling ad really good pastry.

So here it is.

Crisp pastry hiding layers of Christmas

What You Need

Pastry

• 500g Plain Flour

• Pinch of salt

• 300g Butter - Cut into cubes

• 4 Egg Yolks - from large eggs

• 3-5 Tablespoons Gin - See Tip Box

• Butter and extra flour for tin preparation - See Tip Box

• 1 egg for egg wash

Every layer full of Christmas flavour

Filling

• 4 Large Turkey Breast Fillets - Cut into thin slices - See Tip Box

• 2 Large Onions - thinly sliced

• 2 Jars of Cranberry Sauce - See Tip Box

• 1 1/2 Boxes of Stuffing Mix- Prepared - See Tip Box

• 1 Pack of Streaky Bacon - See Tip Box

• Salt & Pepper to taste

Layer 1, Turkey Breast

How It’s Done

Pastry

• Place the flour & salt into a food processor & give it a couple of pulses to mix the two together.

• Keep the food processor running & slowly add the pieces of butter one piece at a time.

• Let the processor run until the mix resembles bread crumbs & begins to come together.

• Add tablespoons of the gin, one at a time , until the pastry comes together & is soft & pliable.- See Tip Box

• Once the pastry is ready, wrap in cling film and set aside for about 30 minutes.

Top layer of streaky bacon

• Once the pastry has rested, shake a little flour onto a work surface, roll the pastry out & carefully line the prepared loose bottomed cake tin with it.

• Gather up all the off cuts of the pastry and set them aside to be used for the top of the pie later.

Layers of Christmas flavour

Filing

• Add the layers of the filling, adding pepper and salt (to taste) after each layer.

• Layer 1 - Prepared turkey breast - See Tip Box

• Layer 2- Cranberry Sauce - See Tip Box

• Layer 3 - Thinly sliced onions

• Layer 4 - Prepared Stuffing - See Tip Box

• Layer 5 - Streaky Bacon See Tip Box

Don’t waste any of that pastry, go Christmas crazy with the decoration

• Heat the oven up to 200c.

• Place a baking tray into the oven to heat up

• Roll out the rest of the pastry to the size of the pie.

• Place the pastry onto the pie and trim the edges and seal them by pressing down or use a fork to crimp.

• Use the scraps of pastry to decorate the top of the pie

• Crack the egg into a cup and give it a whisk with a fork to loosen it up a little

• Brush the top of the pie well with the beaten egg, place onto the hot baking tray and place the baking tray with the pie back into the oven.

• Reduce the oven to 180c and bake for 45 minutes until the top is a golden brown.

• Remove the tray with the pie from the oven and cover the top of the pie with two layers of foil.

• Place the pie back into the oven for another 1 1/2 -2 hours until the filing is piping hot all the way through. - See Tip Box

• Remove from the oven and run a thin metal spatular around the inside edges of the tin to loosen the pie a little.

• Let the pie cool completely in the tin before removing.

• Once the pie is cold, run the spatular around the inside of the tin again, loosen the fastening on the tin and remove the pie.

• Serving - See Tip Box
  
  

A layer of cranberry sauce makes it really Christmas

Tip Box

• Oven - All ovens are different , so make sure that the pie is piping hot all the way through, especially as there are raw meat ingredients in the pie.

• Serving- Serve the pie right away or keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week or double wrap in foil and freeze. Thaw completely before serving cold.

• Tin Preparation - Rub butter around the inside of the tin and dust with flour so that all of the inside is covered.

• Turkey Breast- Cut the turkey breasts into thin slices so they will cook more evenly. If you cant get your hands on turkey breast, just replace with chicken instead.

• Gin - The addition of gin makes the pastry extra crisp and adds more flavour to the pastry. I used Ribble Valley Gin which is great in this recipe . Use your favourite.

• Stuffing Mix - If you have leftover stuffing , use that. If not, prepare the stuffing mix with gravy instead of water (as per the packets instructions) , let it get cold and then use in the pie.

• Bacon - I used streaky bacon because for me, this is my taste of Christmas and something i use to cover the turkey whilst cooking.

• Cranberry Sauce - To make it easier to spread, give the sauce a gently whisk with a fork to loosen it up.

Layer of prepared cold stuffing