The recipe
Lore
Cristy’s picnic pies make a persuasive case for pastry as portable comfort food. Mushroom and leek bring savoury depth and sweetness, while the creamy filling asks the pastry to stay crisp enough to travel and sturdy enough to hold its shape. The handshake is verified; the precise bake remains unpublished in the reviewed sources.
Source note
Public recreation / fan method — not the baker’s original formula. Paraphrased from Cristy’s Garlic Mushroom Picnic Pies, Relaxed Recipes; this is not Cristy Sharp’s original formula. The source does not give a quantity for the hot-water-crust pastry.
Ingredients
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 8oz mushrooms, finely chopped
- 2 oz European butter, for the mushrooms
- 2 leeks, finely chopped
- 2 oz European butter, for the leeks and sauce
- 1/4 cup plain flour
- 0.7 oz portabella mushroom powder
- 1 pint flavoured milk
- Salt and pepper
- Hot-water-crust pastry, quantity not specified in the source, to line and cover the tins
Method
- Melt the first butter. Soften the garlic, add mushrooms, and cook over low heat for 10–12 minutes until beginning to brown. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper.
- Cook the leeks in the remaining butter for 10 minutes until soft.
- Make a white sauce with the second butter, flour, mushroom powder, and flavoured milk. Season once thick.
- Stir the mushrooms and leeks into the sauce.
- Line picnic pie tins with pastry; the source says not to blind bake. Fill without overfilling, leaving room for expansion and lids.
- Add and crimp the lids. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes, or until golden.
Baker’s tips
Keep the filling below the lid line and let it cool enough to handle before filling the pastry, so the picnic pies stay neat.
