Lighter Cornish pasties
See this recipe step by step

Lighter Cornish pasties

Angela Nilsen retains the taste but halves the fat of these traditional pastry bakes by using beef skirt and less butter in the pastry

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

MAKES 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 min

Cook time

Cook 50 mins

Freezable

FREEZE best prior to baking

Method

  1. To make the filling, mix everything together in a bowl with ¾ tsp black pepper and 1 tbsp cold water. Stir in a pinch of salt and set aside. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 1-2 baking sheets or trays with baking parchment.
  2. To make the pastry, put the flour, baking powder and butter in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Tip in the oil, egg yolk and 5 tbsp cold water. Pulse again until the dough just starts to come together, adding another ½-1 tbsp water, or as needed. If you gently press the dough and it sticks together, you know it's the right consistency. Tip out the dough onto the work surface and gently press it into a smooth ball.
  3. Cut the pastry into 6 equal pieces. For each pasty, lightly and briefly shape one piece of the pastry to a smooth ball. (Keep the other pieces wrapped in cling film until needed.) Press the ball down to make an even flattened round. Then roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface, as thinly as you can, to a circle just over 20cm in diameter, keeping the round shape with your hands as you roll. As you're rolling the pastry thinner than usual, handle it carefully to prevent it breaking, and keep the work surface and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour to prevent the pastry sticking. Use the base of a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin (or similar) as a guide to cut around to neaten the pastry edges (step 1). Spoon a sixth of the filling down the centre of the pastry circle and lightly press down with your hand to contain and flatten it slightly. Dampen the pastry edges with water (step 2) and carefully bring one side of the pastry over to join the other side (step 3), tucking in the filling to keep it inside as you do so. Press the joins together to seal, then make a thin decorative edge by rolling or curling the pastry edge over all the way around. Press down to seal. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling. Sit each pasty on the baking sheet or tray, then pierce a small hole in the top of each one for the steam to escape. Beat the egg white to loosen, then brush a little over each pasty to glaze (step 4).
  4. Bake for 15 mins, then lower the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Brush with more egg white, and bake a further 35 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden, covering loosely with foil if they are browning too quickly. Remove with a wide spatula and leave to cool slightly on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.

PER PASTY

511 kcalories, protein 22.1g, carbohydrate 48.5g, fat 25.2 g, saturated fat 10.7g, fibre 2.8g, sugar 3.1g, salt 0.8 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, July 2012.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo Jayno

    19 July 2012

    Jayno rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    In spite of a healthy diet, my husband recently had a stroke so we are super careful now. Like all men he loves pies and pasties and we really thought they were a thing of the past. This recipe was very well received by him and I found them surprisingly easy to make - the pastry handled well. The only changes I made were to use cholesterol busting spread instead of butter (made the pastry lovely to roll out) and I bought a piece of beef skirt which was only half the size recommended because it was on offer- just increased the vegetables to compensate. We certainly didn't miss the meat and hopefully I made it even healthier!. Definitely now part of my repetoire and will use the pastry recipe for other pies and quiches.

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  • Binder photo Jayno

    19 July 2012

    Jayno commented on this recipe

    Forgot to say, didn't bother with perfect circles, just divided it equally and rolled it out into a rough circle, filled it, folded it over and crimped it with quite a thick edge - more like traditional pasties!!

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  • Binder photo sailorgirl

    20 July 2012

    sailorgirl rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    As vegetarians I change this recipe to include Quorn pieces instead of Beef, Quorn is also much lower in fat than beef. I also use a vegetable spread instead of butter and sometimes use wholemeal flour instead of plain. Also I use vegetarian home made Worcester sauce. Everyone really enjoys these pasties even the non vegetarians in my family.

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  • Binder photo tupps

    24 November 2012

    tupps rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I found that there was far too much filling for the pasties, despite having rolled out the pastry so very thin. So I had to freeze half of the filling as had no extra ingredients for more pastry!

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

MAKES 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 min

Cook time

Cook 50 mins

Freezable

FREEZE best prior to baking

Ingredients

FOR THE FILLING

FOR THE PASTRY

  • 350g plain flour , plus extra for dusting
  • 1¼ tsp baking powder
  • 85g cold butter , cut into small pieces
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed oil
  • 1 large egg , separated
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PER PASTY

511 kcalories, protein 22.1g, carbohydrate 48.5g, fat 25.2 g, saturated fat 10.7g, fibre 2.8g, sugar 3.1g, salt 0.8 g

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