Hot Water Crust Pastry

Chef's Tips

the pastry is shaped by hand whilst still warm and then filled and the top put on. Prepare the filling before making the pastry. It’s best to cut off the piece for the lid first and leave it covered with a towel in a bowl over hot water to keep it warm. It is usually used for pork pies, game pies and other pies needing a hand raised pastry.
As the name implies, the pastry is made by heating water, melting the fat in this, bringing to the boil, and finally mixing with the flour. This can be done by beating the flour into the mixture in the pan, or by kneading on a pastry board. The result is a hot and rather sticky paste that can be used for hand-raising (shaping by hand), sometimes using a dish or bowl as an inner mould. As the crust cools, its shape is largely retained, and it is filled and covered with a crust, ready for baking. Hand-raised hot water crust pastry does not produce a neat and uniform finish, as there will be sagging during the cooking of the filled pie. This is generally accepted as the mark of a hand-made pie. It is possible, however, to bake the pastry in a mould, as with other pies.
When baked, the crust attains a deep, shiny, golden outside, which is quite crisp, this allows the pies to be filled with a savoury jelly or gravy as they cool, often through a central hole in the crust made expressly for the purpose during the raising of the pie.