Savory Pie Pops - 2 Ways

I've been dying to make these for ages and driving home from work yesterday I couldn't get them out of my head (sad, I know). I figured a slight detour home via the supermarket wouldn't be too much hassle, so I stopped to pick up everything I'd need. I couldn't decide what to put in my pies though, so I thought I'd just see what I could find in the cupboard at home. After much debate, I settled on two sweet and two savory fillings. Black cherry; white chocolate and nut; sweet potato and chorizo; and goats cheese and spring onion. These are the recipes for the savory ones - great hot or cold!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
200g plain flour

Pinch of salt

110g butter, cubed

2-3 tbsp cold water

For the goats cheese filling:

200g soft goats cheese

4 spring onions, chopped

1tbsp chopped chives

Pepper

For the chorizo filling:

1 medium sweet potato, diced

1 chorizo sausage

1tsp butter

1tbsp milk

Paprika

1 egg, beaten

16 wooden lolly sticks

First, make the pastry by tipping the flour into a large bowl with 1 tsp salt. Add the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Slowly add in the cold water, stirring with your hand, until the pastry just comes together. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead together into a ball. Cover and put in the fridge while you make your fillings.

To make the goats cheese filling, beat the cheese in a small bowl to soften it, and then stir in the onions and chives until well combined.

To make the chorizo filling, boil the diced sweet potato for about 10 minutes until it’s soft. Drain, add the butter and milk, and stir vigorously, so some of it is mashed, but there are still some chunks. Chop the chorizo sausage into small pieces, and fry in a dry pan for 5 minutes to cook the chorizo through and release some of its oils. Once cooked, drain and stir into the sweet potato until well combined.

Now you have your fillings made, you can start to assemble the pie pops.
Line your baking tray(s) with greaseproof paper and pre-heat your oven to 180c.
Roll your pastry out onto a lightly floured surface, to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a round cookie cutter, approx. 2-2.5” in diameter, to cut out an even number of circles, re-rolling any off-cuts. You should get about 32 rounds out of it, which is enough to make 16 pies, so 8 of each filling if you are making both. If you don’t get that many out of it, just make sure you have an even number of rounds as you’ll need two to make each pie. 

Put half of the rounds to one side as these will be your lids, and space the remaining rounds out on the tray(s). Brush the edges with egg, and place a lolly stick about an inch into the round, pushing into the pastry slightly.

Put a teaspoon of your filling into the centre of each pastry round, and place a pastry lid on top. Nest, using the end of a spare lolly stick, or a fork, crimp around the edges of the pie to seal it, making sure to seal well around the lolly stick.

Give all the pies a good egg wash, then sprinkle pepper on the goats cheese ones, and paprika on the chorizo ones – this isn’t just for decorations/taste, it will also help you define the difference between the two when they’re cooked.

Bake in your pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the pastry is crispy and golden. Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before removing from the greaseproof paper and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling. 

And there you have it! Don’t worry if you haven’t got any lolly sticks either – you can leave them out and just seal all the way around the pie. Simple!