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Cheese Pies
Servings: 4 pies
: 800 kcal
Author: Just Jo
Ingredients
  • 350 g puff pastry
  • 25 g soft butter
  • 4 tbsp plain flour
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • ¼-½ tsp grated nutmeg
  • 40 g parmesan grated
  • 115 g mature cheddar grated
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 500 ml milk I use 1%
  • 1 large leek finely shredded and thoroughly washed
  • Olive oil
  • 1 small egg to wash with the pies - not you!
Instructions
  1. Cook the sliced leek in a little olive oil until soft but not coloured. Set aside.
  2. In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour with the seasoning and nutmeg. Go easy on the salt but be liberal with the pepper.
  3. When the flour is cooked out (it will form a crumbly paste with the butter), start dribbling in the milk a little at a time, whisking constantly to prevent lumps forming. Add the dijon mustard when it starts to loosen a little so it doesn’t burn.
  4. Continue adding the milk until it is all combined and cook until the sauce thickens a little more. I find it takes about 5 minutes to get all the milk in and then another 5 minutes of cooking on a medium-high heat to evaporate off some of the liquid and the flour to thicken what is left.
  5. Take off the heat at this point and whisk in all the cheese. When it has melted, stir in the leeks then cover the surface of the cheese sauce with a layer of greaseproof paper to prevent a skin forming. You could pour it into a shallow cold bowl to speed up the cooling process if you wish. I prefer to dirty as few dishes as possible so wait the extra few minutes for it to cool in the pan!
  6. Once cooled to room temperature, roll out your puff pastry to 2mm thick. Trim the edges then slice into 8 rectangles – half large enough to line the bases of your pie dishes, half just big enough to form the lids.
  7. Line your pie tins with the larger rectangles of pastry then share out the pie filling evenly. If you work quickly, you don’t need to chill the dough before you fill but if it’s very hot in your kitchen or the pastry starts to become very soft, stick it in the fridge until firm before proceeding. I don’t trim the pastry as I like them nice and rustic plus I don’t like to waste the pastry (although you can re-roll trimmings to make decorations for the top, if you like that sort of thing).
  8. Brush the exposed edges with the egg wash then press the lids on top. Crimp the edges with a fork then brush with egg wash, sprinkle with a little more seasoning and cut 2 or 3 holes in each pie lid to let steam out.
  9. Bake in the centre of an oven preheated to 200°C until the pastry has risen, is very brown and crisp when tapped.
  10. Stand for a minute or two before you try and unmould them – there is enough butter in the pastry that pre-greasing the tins is unnecessary but if any egg wash has gotten underneath, the pies may need prising away before taking out of the tin. Serve hot or allow to cool and wrap for a jealousy invoking packed lunch!