Cornish Pasty

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 125g cold lard or white shortening, cubed
• 125g cold butter, cubed
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 175ml cold water
• 450g beef skirt steak, cut into 1cm dice
• 300g swede, cut into 1cm dice
• 300g potato, cut into 1cm dice
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 30g butter, cut into small knobs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp salt for the filling
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Before you cook

• Cut the skirt steak into 1cm dice, removing any gristle.
• Peel and dice the swede and potato into pieces the same size as the beef.
• Finely chop the onion.
• Mix the beef, swede, potato and onion in a bowl with the salt and a heavy hand of black pepper.

Steps

1. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cold lard and butter.
2. Rub the fats into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized lumps left.
3. Pour in the cold water and bring the dough together with a knife, then knead it briefly in the bowl until smooth.
4. Wrap the dough and chill it for at least one hour, which lets the gluten relax and firms the fat.
5. Heat the oven to 180C fan and line two baking sheets with paper.
6. Divide the dough into six equal pieces and roll each into a ball.
7. Roll one ball on a floured surface into a circle about 20cm across and 3mm thick.
8. Pile a sixth of the filling along the centre of the circle, leaving a clear border, and dot a knob of butter on top.
9. Brush the border with beaten egg.
10. Lift the two sides of the pastry up over the filling and press them together along the top to form a ridge.
11. Crimp the ridge by folding a corner of pastry over itself and pressing, then repeating along the whole seam to make a rope.
12. Move the pasty to a lined sheet and repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
13. Brush all the pasties with beaten egg and cut a small slit in the top of each.
14. Bake for fifteen minutes at 180C fan.
15. Lower the oven to 160C fan and bake for a further forty-five minutes until deep gold.
16. Rest the pasties for fifteen minutes so the filling stops steaming, then eat them in the hand.