Before going deep into knowing how to make hot water pastry scotch pie we will First find out what exactly is a “Scotch” pie? & which thing makes it different from any other meat pie?
The origins of the pie are basically from so long period of time ago that no one exactly knows where they came from. Although it is generally accepted that the belongings of scotch pie are from Scotland. interestingly Scotch pie has been made in Scotland for at least the last four or five hundred years.
Surprisingly you can’t get much more traditionally Scottish than that scotch pie. While every recipe for the scotch pie filling differs slightly from other recipes. There are some common and most used spices including mace and nutmeg that really make the pie a Scotch Pie.
Read Also: “Can You Cook A Scotch Pie From Frozen?“
Table of Contents
Ingredients required for the Scotch Pie Recipe
The scotch pie recipe has two parts, the pastry, and the filling for the scotch pie.
Ingredients for HOT WATER PASTRY
- 2 cups or 250g plain flour
- 1/2 cup or 100g lard
- 1/2 cup or 120ml water
FILLING of the scotch pie
- 300g lamb mince
- 1 small onion
- 1 tsp mixed herbs including basil, marjoram, and oregano. You can use rosemary herbs as well.
- 1/2 heaped tsp mace
- Beef stock, lamb stock, or lamb gravy whatever you prefer.
- Mix up all the ingredients. Use a maximum of about 4 tbsp.
- A liberal amount of salt and pepper throughout the recipe according to your taste preferences.
Lard isn’t exactly the nicest thing to cook a scotch pie with but it’s a necessary ingredient to make hot water pastry. If you’re a vegetarian and you are looking for a vegetarian substitute. Then you could use a combination of butter and vegetable shortening in the recipe. If you are going for a vegan scotch pie pastry then you’d need to purely use vegetable shortening while cooking.
We haven’t tried either of these options of scotch pie yet at home but we are planning to do so in the future. We are planning so we can release specific recipes for these dishes. Let us know if you try these recipes and also about your experience.
Read Also: “Should cannolis be refrigerated or how to store the cannolis?“
WHAT DOES HOT WATER CRUST TASTE LIKE?
Hot water crust has very little or you can say no flavor in it unless extra spices are not added to it. When it is made only with lard, then the crust has no flavor at all. The reason for this is that animal fat is flavorless. To avoid this blunder I prefer to use 50-50% lard and butter. The butter will add flavor to the crust of hot water pastry.
Read Also: “How to keep hard candy from getting sticky?“
Why hot water crust pastry dough is too hard?
According to Reader’s Digest, the hot water crust pastry is usually hard because there wasn’t enough fat or liquid added to the dough. Without the addition of enough of either of these ingredients, the dough is more difficult to work with which leads you to overwork it while making the dough. If you want to make your hot water crust pastry dough soft then add a little amount of fat or liquid into it so you don’t have to overwork with it.