GBBO Week 7 - Game Pie | Honeycomb Crunchies

This weekend we decided to go back to last week’s Victorian bake off episode, and make a game pie. After looking in our local butchers we got three different types of game – venison steaks, duck breast and a whole rabbit. I can’t take credit for making this pie however – my boyfriend was in charge – and it was the most delicious, poshest pie I’ve had. He loosely based the recipe on Tamal's – here is his recipe. One addition he made was using freshly picked mushrooms from a forest near his house – don’t do this unless you know your mushrooms!

This made a huge pie – easily enough for 8 good servings.

Ingredients:

For the filling:

350g sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2.5cm chunks
200g carrots, peeled and chopped into 2.5cm chunks
1 onion, peeled and chopped finely
250g mushrooms, chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
450g rabbit (we got this from one chubby rabbit!) – cubed
300g duck breast, cubed
300g venison, cubed
100g dried chopped apricots
100g full fat greek yoghurt
100g black treacle
1 ¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp Schwartz Moroccan spice blend

For the hot water crust pastry:

80g butter
140g lard
1 tsp salt
300g plain flour
300g strong white bread flour
1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4.

2. Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Boil the vegetables for 5 minutes, until starting to go soft (but still hold their shape).

3. In a large frying pan, heat the oil and fry the spices for 1 minute. Add the meats, and fry for 3-4 minutes – this browns off the meat.

4. Add the drained vegetables and chopped apricots, before adding the yoghurt and treacle. Cook for a few minutes, until the sauce has slightly reduced. Season with salt, and leave to cool.

5. Make the pastry. In a medium saucepan, heat the butter, lard and salt together, with 240ml water.

6. Sieve together the plain and strong bread flour. Once the lard and butter have melted, make a well in the centre of the flours, and pour in the fat mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon to a smooth dough.

7. Once cool enough to handle, roll out two thirds of the pastry to about 5mm thick – place in your pie dish (we used a 24cm circular tray, but Tamal used a 20cm springform cake tin).

Add the filling to the pie. Roll out two thirds of the remaining pastry to make a pie lid. Cover the filling with the lid, and seal the edges using a fork. Make a hole in the cake for steam to escape whilst cooking.

8. Roll out the remaining pastry and make decorations. Place on the pie.

9. Brush the beaten egg over the pie lid. Bake for 90 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check that the game pie has cooked – it should be around 74c.

10. Enjoy the pie warm or cold.