This sounds like an odd subject heading but I would like some
assistance here.

I have been making standard meat pies for ages. That is to say, my
meat pie is a pastry crust (shorcrustt pastry - see below) lined into
a pie dish and my pie dish is oblong and about 8-9 inches long x 5
inches or so wide with a 1 inch lip. Into this pastry lining I place
cooked meat in thick gravy - with or without kidney - and then a
pastry lid sealed with warm water and an egg wash and knife-cut vents
or a hole in the middle.

This I place on a previously heated oven sheet in a very hot oven (200
deg C) for about 35 minutes, and turn down to about 135 deg C for a
further hour.

This pie turns out just fine. But I have a problem with the
following pies:

Same short-crust recipe. Line a loose-bottom flan tin - without
stretching the pastry. Now - some recipes call for freezing or
chilling this pastry case for 20 minutes or so and then filling it
with an uncooked filling and cook for the requisite time in a fairly
hot oven on a previously heated oven sheet at 170-180 deg C for about
40 minutes. I do not find this works. The bottom of the pastry is
frequently not cooked through properly.

Other recipes call for blind cooking the pastry case, cooling it, and
then filling it with uncooked filling and then baking on a heated oven
sheet . I have tried this and wound up with very browned pastry.
However, some people like it like this.

Jamie Oliver recommends blind cooking any shortcrust pastry cases to
be filled with uncooked filling for about 15 minutes at 150 deg C and
then leaving to cool. He recommends a light wash of whisked egg
white over the base of the pastry and returned to the oven for 30
seconds only! He does this for quiche and savoury pies so that the
base seals and does not leak the contents. He recommends a bit
hotter blind baking for the same length of time for cooked fillings
which don't need the egg-white wash sealer.

I need advice here. And I need it from experienced pie-makers. I
think my oven temperature is actually a bit higher than the display
tells me - and I often turn it down by 10 deg C. I use the fan-bake
option. Shoudl I experiment with the conventional bake only perhaps?

(My shortcrust recipe is : 8 oz all-purpose flour, pinch salt, 4 oz
shortening (usually 3 oz butter, 1 oz lard), sufficient iced water to
form a firm pastry ball which I then wrap in cling-wrap and
refrigerate for up to 1 hour, but no less than 45 minutes.)

Love to hear from good pie-makers

Cheers


The Golfer's Wife