Homemade pork and apple pies

Pastry:
Sift the cake flour, add the salt and rub in the butter.

Mix until it resembles breadcrumbs, make a well, add the egg yolk and a little water, mix and add more water until it forms a dough. Wrap in cling and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Filling:
Simmer the sausages in the chicken stock, remove and cook and keep the chicken stock for mixing with the gelatine later.

In the meantime, fry the onions gently until translucent (not brown)

Sprinkle the gelatine onto 2 TSP cold water and leave to get spongy

Grease or spray a muffin tin

Roll out 2/3 of the pastry and line the muffin tins, use the remainder for the lids.

Put the tray back in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm, the colder the pastry the less it will shrink during cooking.

Remove the skins from the cooled sausages, chop and mix with the fried onion, sage, seasoning and grated apple.

Fill the muffin cases with the pork mixture.

Cut the rounds for your tops,brush the underside of the lid with egg wash, crimp it together with the edge of a fork. Make a hole in the top so you to add the gelatine later. Use a syringe to do this. If using a spoon, make the hole a bit larger.

Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash and place in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes at 200°C.

Leaving the pies in the tray, let them cool and put in the fridge until they are cold.

Heat 125ml of the reserved chicken stock and dissolve the spongy gelatine in it, let it cool until it’s starting to thicken, using a syringe or a spoon to pour approximately 8-10mls of gelatine into the cold pies. Put them back in the fridge for at least another hour for the jelly to set. Don’t be tempted to leave the jelly out, this is a much tastier jelly than you find in supermarket pork pies.

Reprinted with permission of Sous Chef.
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