The Crusty Chronicles. Savories from Bakeries.

[heidih]

5 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Mooncakes are not pies and, unlike pies, are barely edible.

 

Deceptive things - glossy, interesting pattern imprints, and then you take a bite - waste of calories. Dog not even tempted.

 

[IowaDee]

Looking around and then quickly removing "mooncake" from bucket list of foods I want to try.  

[Anna N]

Time to taste test another steak and kidney pie. This one was from the British Grocer. 
 

Looking at the ingredient list I was surprised to see Bisto gravy.  I’m not sure why that would surprise me.I als noticed the sodium content but it didn’t bother me. I don’t eat these every day.

 

 

I reheated it in the Breville smart oven at 325°F for 50 minutes. @Kerry Bealis doing her level best to persuade me to use the Cuisinart steam oven on the steam bake setting. For reasons that I cannot explain even to myself, I can’t bring myself to do that.
 

I did forget to take a pre-bake photograph.

 

 

 

To please @rotuts, I attempted to transfer this from its foil pie plate to my bowl in such a way that it ended right side up. Instead I managed to pretty much destroy it proving once again that I’m right. The pie should be turned out of its pie dish so it lands bottom up and intact in the bowl.

 

 

 

Again you can see there is no skimping on the kidney. In my opinion there was a little too much kidney. But the filling was tasty, tender and moist. The crust was excellent. It was crispy, flaky and tasty. 
 

Although I have not enjoyed the Bisto gravy I have made from the mix, it was perfectly palatable in this pie. 
 

 

Once again the compost bin went hungry.

[rotuts]

@Anna N 

 

Mea Culpa .

 

I guess , back in the day , 

 

we ate the PotPies 

 

right out of the aluminum container

 

Swanson , Fz.  mid '50's

 

how A Gauche  .

 

[ed.: FR for Gauche .]

Edited August 25, 2020 by rotuts (log)

[liuzhou]

Gratuitous sausage roll image from last year. No apologies.

 

[heidih]

That actually looks crusty. What were innards like?

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Gratuitous sausage roll image from last year. No apologies.

No apologies needed. Was it nearly as good as it looks?

[liuzhou]

20 minutes ago, Anna N said:

No apologies needed. Was it nearly as good as it looks?

 

better

[CantCookStillTry]

22 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Gratuitous sausage roll image from last year. No apologies.

 

Torture. 

This is Torture. 

It's been 2 years 232 days.... 😂

[Anna N]

Yesterday my daughter visited one of my favourite food stores, Denninger’s . I asked her to look only for some smoked duck breasts and some cabbage rolls. She knew that I had earlier asked for sausage rolls so she began sending me text after text with photographs of sausage rolls, pies, pastries in heaven only knows what! My freezer is now jammed full. 
 

This was one of the items I asked her to get for me. 

 

As a traditionalist as far as pies go, I was more than prepared to dislike this. It was more a case of taking one for the team. 
 

 

Before baking (re-heating). There were no directions, no ingredient list, no nutritional value sticker. But I followed directions for other pies I have had and put it into the Breville smart oven at 325°F for 50 minutes.  

 

After baking. 
 

 

Tipped out of its foil pan and into a bowl. 
 

 

Breached!

 

To my surprise I enjoyed this more than any other chicken pie that I have had in recent memory. There seemed to be the appropriate amount of chicken, vegetables and enough sauce to keep it lovely and moist. The pastry was tasty and crispy. I tried my best to identify the curry flavour. It was definitely not what I was expecting. I thought for sure it would be seasoned with that ubiquitous yellow curry powder that we Brits used to believe was the epitome of “Indian” flavour.  This was most definitely not that but something much more nuanced and complex. 
 

 

I would have little difficulty keeping a supply of these in my freezer if only there were room!

Edited August 29, 2020 by Anna N
Typo (log)

[robirdstx]

The Curry Pie looks delicious! I did a little searching and found this:

 

https://denningers.com/collections/quiche-pie/products/curry-chicken-pie-275g

 

Next time I make pot pies, I may try this.

Edited August 29, 2020 by robirdstx (log)

[Anna N]

37 minutes ago, robirdstx said:

The Curry Pie looks delicious! I did a little searching and found this:

 

https://denningers.com/collections/quiche-pie/products/curry-chicken-pie-275g

 

Next time I make pot pies, I may try this.

 

 Wow! Thanks. Confirms my suspicions about the curry flavouring. Definitely not the yellow stuff. I can’t say I detected much else that is in there but that may be  my taste buds showing their age.  
 

[Kerry Beal]

Bespoke sausage rolls. Asked @Alleguede if he made them and he said he had been thinking about it after recently making some sausage. 

 

 

 

 

First one - steam bake 425 for 30 minutes. Not cooked as I wanted. 

 

 

 

Second one - convection bake 425 for 10 min then 325 for 20 minutes.

 

 

In the background we have a sausage roll procured this morning from Ernie's meat market - not quite what I was hoping for. Looks like they don't take the sausage out of the casing and the pastry is particularly parsimonious. 

 

@Alleguede's version needs to have a thinner layer of puff I suspect to make them perfect. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Looks like they don't take the sausage out of the casing and the pastry is particularly parsimonious. 

And to me the difference between a sausage roll and a pig in a blanket is exactly this.

[Anna N]

 From the British Grocer

 

 

Out of my freezer. 
 

 

Sunburned after being a little too close to the upper element in the Breville smart oven. 
 

 

But the bottom was nicely browned. I took my instructions from the British Gregg’s sausage roll page which called for 425°F with the cooking sheet preheated along with the oven.  I found it was perfectly good at the 25 minute mark. Next time I would lower the shelf. 
 

 

 

Meat to pastry ratio seemed right to me and the pastry was definitely very flaky. Sausage flavour was good. If I have just one fault to find it would be that there was a little too much salt for my liking.  
 

So far I would say this was my favourite. 

 

 

 

[haresfur]

Mulga Bill - lamb and potato and a chicken and mushroom. Chicken pie needs more mushrooms. Crust on both was very good imo

[teonzo]

On 8/29/2020 at 10:59 PM, Kerry Beal said:

First one - steam bake 425 for 30 minutes. Not cooked as I wanted. 

 

On 8/29/2020 at 10:59 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Second one - convection bake 425 for 10 min then 325 for 20 minutes.

 

When the puff pastry remains raw in the inside and especially at the bottom, then you can try cooking it at 325 F (convection, no steam) for 1 hour or longer. This way the puff pastry has time to cook completely and the temperature is not as high to burn the outside.

 

I'm surprised you haven't posted a single quiche with frog legs until now.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Anna N]

7 minutes ago, teonzo said:

When the puff pastry remains raw in the inside and especially at the bottom, then you can try cooking it at 325 F (convection, no steam) for 1 hour or longer. This way the puff pastry has time to cook completely and the temperature is not as high to burn the outside.

I am somewhat surprised at this advice. Quite some time back I was having serious trouble with some puff pastry confections that I was making and with the help of people here traced the problem to an oven that was not getting hot enough. Once I was able to solve that problem and bake them at 400° or higher, they rose as expected and were perfect.  

[Anna N]

12 hours ago, haresfur said:

Mulga Bill - lamb and potato and a chicken and mushroom. Chicken pie needs more mushrooms. Crust on both was very good imo

So good to see someone else fully engaged in this exploration. I don’t expect to find anything with lamb here unless it is homemade.  
 

Mulga Bill sent me down a rabbit hole from which I emerged without even a clue as to the relationship between a children’s poem and a lamb and potato pie!  Can you enlighten me? 

[teonzo]

9 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I am somewhat surprised at this advice. Quite some time back I was having serious trouble with some puff pastry confections that I was making and with the help of people here traced the problem to an oven that was not getting hot enough. Once I was able to solve that problem and bake them at 400° or higher, they rose as expected and were perfect.  

 

I was very surprised too the first time! I was always been taught that puff pastry needs 200°C / 390F or more otherwise it won't rise. I even tried, just for personal curiosity, to cook puff pastry at lower temperatures and always got a failure.

Then a couple years ago I saw a pastry chef cooking allumettes (the small rectangles of puff pastry with royal icing on them) at 165°C for 1 hour and they came out better than ever. So that rule proved to be not accurate. The trick here is using the convection oven (I tried without convection and it failed) and wait for enough time (which is longer than you think, the outside will reach your desired color before the pastry is completely cooked, but if you go on you won't burn the outside because you are at the limit of the burning temperature).

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, teonzo said:

I was very surprised too the first time!

Thanks. I think I have the opportunity to test out the longer bake using the convection fan on my oven versus baking at a higher temperature. I hope to report back in a couple of days. 

[Anna N]

 

Breakfast

 

 

This time nutritional information was included but who on earth would cheat only 1/2 of a small pie?

 

 

with the wrapping removed, the crust seemed pale and moist and positively unappetizing. 
 

 

Again no cooking instructions were  included. But this is the pie after 50 minutes In the Breville smart oven at 325°F. You can see that I put holes in the crust with my thermometer. I wanted to ensure that it was at least 168°F. This had a little to do with food safety and much to do with my dislike of cold pie filings. 
 

 

The crust suffered some minor trauma as I turned it out of its foil container. 
 

 

The innards. 
 

Not one of my favourites. I am sure the pastry is the same across this whole line of pies and yet this did not appeal to me in the same way. The filling was moist and tasty but the meat was not as tender as I think it should have been. I wouldn’t turn down another of these pies but nor would I make the effort to ensure a steady supply. 
 

 

But I still managed to finish every scrap. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kim Shook]

32 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

Again no cooking instructions were  included. 

 

 

I am seeing "Heat at 350F for 30-45 minutes" right under "Tourte au Steak avec Legumes".  Um...is that not a cooking instruction?  😉

Edited August 31, 2020 by Kim Shook (log)

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

am seeing "Heat at 350F for 30-45 minutes" right under "Tourte au Steak avec Legumes".  Um...is that not a cooking instruction?  😉

Missed that completely. Thank you for pointing it out. 

[haresfur]

10 hours ago, Anna N said:

So good to see someone else fully engaged in this exploration. I don’t expect to find anything with lamb here unless it is homemade.  
 

Mulga Bill sent me down a rabbit hole from which I emerged without even a clue as to the relationship between a children’s poem and a lamb and potato pie!  Can you enlighten me? 

 

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze'

 

The pies are from the Eaglehawk Bakehouse. The Borough of Eaglehawk, now part of the city of Bendigo, may or not be the Eaglehawk of the poem. No matter, we have embraced it and they have recently constructed a marvelous Mulga Bill themed playground.

 

And lest someone thinks we are straying too far from food, my belief is that a sense of place is as important as a sense of plate in the way food nourishes our souls.