Pease Pudding Pastry – this is worth it.

A while ago someone in my SW group shared Pease Pudding pastry and I even bought a can of Pease Pudding at the time but never got around to trying it.

For some reason this week I decided to give it a go and really really pleased with the outcome. It is a gluten free, waistline friendly alternative to flour based pastry. and allowed me to make some great pies for tea.

The pastry itself is not complex. I emptied three cans of pease pudding in to my mixer bowl, added four eggs and then mixed until I had a smoothish paste. The pastry itself is very different to regular pastry as you don’t roll it out.

However you won’t have my regular battles when making shortcrust pastry with too much butter/flour/over rolled etc etc .

I sprayed my pie dishes (I used three single dishes) with spray oil and then spooned three dollops into each dish. You then gently push and move it around until you have an even coverage around the dish and over the edge (for the top). It is worth spending a little time on this making sure it is as even as is possible. It won’t be pastry smooth but it still works.

I then blind baked my cases in a medium oven for thirty minutes. It is worth checking every now and then because each oven is different. You do not need to use any beans to hold the base down.

Once they are firm enough, with a firm top layer but still some give underneath, then bring them out to fill. The surface will be cracked but this is normal as long as it is not cracked all the way through.

Fill your pie with your chosen filling. I made a steak and mushroom filling with gravy made using stock, Worcestershire sauce and tomato purée. One thing I learned is that the pie can hold more gravy than I expected and so will allow more gravy inside the pie next time.

I then spooned three dollops on top and smoothed it around over the top and even forked the edges for the real pie look.

I bake in the oven until I had a browning top. I cannot give a precise time yet for this as I was adjusting the temperature and position in the oven to cater for Maggie’s decision to go for a bike ride before tea. In reality thirty minutes in a hot oven should do.

It felt like a really indulgent treat when I ate my pie. Pastry has been one of the things I have had far less off to get my weight loss and now I have a great alternative. Reuben was ok with it but said he would rather have a mashed potato topping (he is very predictable). Maggie, who can resist some of the SW alternatives, ate the lot.

In reality this is not a SW recipe but a traditional recipe form the north of England, used when times were hard and flour was too expensive. Certainly far more traditionally British than Fish and Chips or a Chicken Rogan Josh.

For me it is now a firm favourite, I want to try a sweet version to make lower calorie dessert pie. I do like my puddings.