Muffin Tin Pies

Shortcrust Pastry

2 cups flour
A pinch of salt
125 grams cold butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
1/4 cup water

First measure the flour and salt into a large bowl. Then add the butter and begin to rub it into the flour with your fingertips, until the entire thing is like fine crumbs. Then, in a small bowl, whisk together the egg, lemon juice and water . Pour the liquid into the flour and begin to mix it in with your hands (it's easier to incorporate all of the flour with your hands). Mix the dough until it has all come together into a smooth ball. Wrap it in clingfilm, chill it for at least an hour or so, then roll it out and use it whenever you are ready. You can freeze pastry dough too, for a few months at least, as a ball or rolled into sheets.

Beef Pie Filling

2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
400 grams beef mince
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 cube oxo beef stock
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon bisto gravy powder
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2 cups frozen peas
Salt and pepper to taste

Begin by heating the oil, then cook the onion and garlic a couple of minutes. Add the mince and cook, stirring, until it is browned all over and crumbly. Add everything else and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until it's thick. Then, when it is thick and tastes good, take it off the heat and let it cool completely before using it.

To make the pies, roll the pastry out (about 3 millimetres thick). Cut out circles that are going to be bigger than your muffin holes.

Push the dough evenly into the tin, so that there are no air-bubbles between the pastry and the base of the tin. Leave some dough spread over the side of each hole, because as it bakes it will shrink just a little.

It is a good idea to blind-bake the cases so that they don't go soggy - to do this just fill each case with baking paper or tin-foil and then fill them with baking beans (any sort of dried bean, or you can get re-usable ceramic beans). Bake the cases for 10 minutes, then take the beans out and let them cool completely. If you don't want to blind-bake you can leave that step out, but you will have to immediately bake the filled pies in a hot oven otherwise the pastry will get soggy.

Spoon the cold filling into the pies so that it is all the way up to the top. After the pies are filled place another circle of pastry on the top, pinching it around the edges of the baked case. Make a couple of cuts in the top of the pastry so that the steam can escape. Bake them at about 180 degrees celsius for about 10 or 20 minutes (since the filling is cooked already you just need the pastry on top to cook and the filling to get hot).