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Showing posts with label cranberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cranberry. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 March 2015
British Pie Week Reci-pie: The Four Course Dinner Pie
British Pie Week Special - Could the Four Course Dinner Pie revolutionise pie eating?!
For those who aren't aware, while our main focus on Pierate - Pie Reviews is to rate commercially bought pies on the 7 Cs of pie rating, we do have our good friend The Ship's Cook who bakes pie recipes (or reci-pies) and gives them a rating on the 7 Cs of pie rating too! And while this is normally trying and testing commercially available pie recipes from cook books or websites, as a special #PiePledge for this year's British Pie Week she decided to make her own. Let's see how she got on:
My #PiePledge for British Pie Week was to try out a new pie recipe, so I thought I'd invent one all of my own! As British Pie Week drew to a close, I decided to celebrate in style with a four course meal. But of course this wasn't just any four course meal - this was a four course meal in a pie.
Yes, you read that correctly, an entire four course meal encased in delicious pastry!
The Recipe:
I did have to ask for some help on this one, as there was a pretty good chance that at least one course would leak into another through my pastry walls. Thanks to my very clever friends, I ended up with four courses that would work separately and together:
Starter - French onion soup
Main - Pork with apple and mushrooms
Pudding - Apple and raisin
Cheese course - Brie and cranberry
I started by making the pastry case and walls, out of shortcrust pastry because I thought that would be quite sturdy. I then blind baked the case while I made the fillings.
The French onion 'soup' was mostly onions slowly cooked in butter with salt, pepper and some flour, and then I made a very thick beef gravy with Worcestershire sauce to make it more like soup. The pork course was pork mince, onions, mushrooms, apple, salt, pepper and some dried herbs. The pudding (apple and raisin) was Bramley apples, raisins, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and brown sugar. Finally, the brie and cranberry was just that - layers of brie with cranberry sauce. I topped the whole thing off with a puff pastry lid, marked it with a series of holes to indicate courses 1- 4 and popped it in the oven until it was brown and crispy.
I'm not sure whether it's fair of me to rate my own pie, but I'm going to give it a go anyway - I'm afraid I am a bit biased and I think it was brilliant!
The Seven Cs:
Colour:
I'll be honest - this could have been a bit darker. I got over-excited and couldn't wait any longer to try the pie, so I took it out of the oven a bit early...
Consistency:
Mixed success here but mostly good. The onion soup section was lovely and moist, with soft onion and smooth gravy. The pork mince was a bit dry and needed some sauce. The apple and cheese layers were both moist without being too runny.
Capacity:
I packed this pie pretty tightly with filling, but it still felt like I was eating a lot of pastry. Still, if you're going to eat four courses of pie you probably love pastry, and I certainly didn't mind!
Chewiness:
No unpleasant chewiness here - I think I got it right with the mix of ingredients. The fairly large pieces of onion in the soup course meant it wasn't too runny, and the addition of mushrooms to the pork and raisins to the apple added a nice texture. The cheese was soft and gooey, which is exactly how melted cheese should be.
Content:
I'm giving myself (and my friends who helped with the recipe) full marks here. It was a FOUR COURSE MEAL in a pie, and it was absolutely delicious.
Cheapness:
This isn't the cheapest pie ever because you have to buy quite a lot of different ingredients, but I did end up with loads of leftover fillings that didn't fit into the pie. So those are in the freezer ready for another meal, and I think the cost was worth it for the impact this pie makes.
Condition:
I was really impressed with this pie. I thought it was going to collapse and end up being an onion-pork-apple-and-cheese pie but amazingly the walls stayed solid and the courses stayed separate. I even managed to get a slice of each course onto a plate so you can see them properly!
Overall, my #PiePledge was a definite success. I strongly recommend that you all go and make your own four course meal pies. Try out different ingredients and let us know what you think! Be prepared to be very full though - I know I am!
The Ship's Cook
Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.
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Monday, 2 December 2013
Winter Warmers from Mr Kipling
Mr Kipling - Winter Warmers Pie Review
At Christmas many companies seem to come out with a festive version of their product. Maybe their chocolate bar is changed to be in the shape of a snowman. Sometimes there is no difference except the packaging. However this year Mr Kipling have come out with a festive edition which is significantly different. On the Pierate Ship we know and love Mr Kipling for their fruit pies. They have long been a favourite for our gatherings even before we came up with the concept of a pie review blog. This festive season they have released their 'Winter Warmers' fruit pies which promise to make you exceedingly merry. But are they going to be a Christmas No 1 or a festive flop? We break down the merit of these 3 festive flavours.
All these pies come in the traditional Mr Kipling pie size. They are the lattice top style, a bit different to the original Mr Kipling pies we know and love. I do prefer to see a fully encased pie but I did my best to over look this as the pies did look marvelous. They were all very well filled with hardly any air gaps. This certainly earned them some more points. All the pies were made of the usual, soft Mr Kipling pastry which had a great golden colour. They all had 46% filling which is a good filling to pastry ratio.
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| Left to Right, Plum & Pear, Apple & Cranberry and Rhubarb pies |
Rhubarb
Mr Kipling did a Rhubarb pie before which I enjoyed and I was glad to see it make a return. Like all these pies it was filled with their trademark sweet, fruity jelly. In this case it had a hint of that typical sour rhubarb taste. I do like sour things but it was verging on too sour for me. There was a good amount of rhubarb in the pie which added a nice chewiness to it. I missed the custard from the previous rhubarb version from Mr Kipling.
Mr Kipling did a Rhubarb pie before which I enjoyed and I was glad to see it make a return. Like all these pies it was filled with their trademark sweet, fruity jelly. In this case it had a hint of that typical sour rhubarb taste. I do like sour things but it was verging on too sour for me. There was a good amount of rhubarb in the pie which added a nice chewiness to it. I missed the custard from the previous rhubarb version from Mr Kipling.
4.45/7
Apple & Cranberry
A nice spin on their usual Apple pie. Again, this pie was sour due to the cranberry but I think this one got the balance just right because of the sweetness of the apple. There were whole cranberries in here which added to the texture, however there wasn't a lot of fruit and I missed the bite that a normal Mr Kipling apple pie due to the chunks of apple.
A nice spin on their usual Apple pie. Again, this pie was sour due to the cranberry but I think this one got the balance just right because of the sweetness of the apple. There were whole cranberries in here which added to the texture, however there wasn't a lot of fruit and I missed the bite that a normal Mr Kipling apple pie due to the chunks of apple.
4.80/7
Plum, Pear & Cinnamon
With the addition of cinnamon this pie did really taste festive and I think Mr Kipling really got it right here. The taste reminded me of a mince pie but the jelly made it much more moist than a mince pie. It certainly seemed like something you would want to serve on the table at a Christmas party. The use of two different fruits added a nice variety to the flavour. The only criticism is the fruit didn't have much bite to it when compared to a regular Mr Kipling pie.
With the addition of cinnamon this pie did really taste festive and I think Mr Kipling really got it right here. The taste reminded me of a mince pie but the jelly made it much more moist than a mince pie. It certainly seemed like something you would want to serve on the table at a Christmas party. The use of two different fruits added a nice variety to the flavour. The only criticism is the fruit didn't have much bite to it when compared to a regular Mr Kipling pie.
5.15/7
So there you have it. A mixed bag in this mixed box of pies but certainly all these pies are worth trying. If nothing else it is just nice to try something different. They don't have a huge amount of fruit in but the sugar jelly tastes nice. For the portable, sweet pie market these are some of the best non-standard flavours and at £1.79 they are less than 30p each.
SJL
We would like to publically thank Mr Kipling for supplying these pies to us (alongside 12 others) as a gift as part of our 4th Birthday celebrations (the only pie company to send us free pies for our birthday!) Thanks so much!
See where these pies ended up in the Pierate Pie Rankings or find other pies of a similar flavour. Make sure you Follow @pierateers
and let us know your thoughts!
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