HAM & APPLE PIE (serves 6)
Ingredients :
25g butter
25g flour
150ml milk
50ml double cream
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
425g puff pastry sheets (frozen, but defrosted)
1 egg yolk, for brushing
180g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
1 large Bramley apple (or 2 medium), cored, peeled & sliced thinly
500g gammon ham (I used Gammon rounds, chopped into small pieces).
Method :
1. First make the béchamel by melting the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or so, then slowly, bit by bit, whisk in the milk and then the cream until you have a lump free sauce. Bring to the boil, stirring all the time and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg. The sauce should thicken. Once that has happened, set it aside to cool.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas 5.
3. Take your pastry pieces and unroll the first onto your baking sheet. With a sharp knife, lightly mark (without cutting through the pastry) a line some 3cm inside of the edge to mark the boundary over which the filling must not stray.
4. Taking your egg yolk and a brush, lightly brush this boundary with egg to provide a sealant once the top layer of pastry is in place.
5. Begin building the pie's filling by placing a blob of béchamel in the middle of the pastry piece and spread it out until the base is covered by a light coating.
6. The next layer is a little cheese, followed by some ham and then the apple - which I recommend you place neatly in little rows, as it can easily get out of control and start sliding everywhere or poking up out of the pastry!
7. Press down the three layers lightly, then season with a little freshly ground black pepper.
8. Add small blobs of béchamel as the beginning of the next batch of layers and smooth them out as best you are able. Follow this with the cheese, ham and apple, then press, then pepper - until you run out of ingredients or the pile is getting rather too big!
9. Take the remaining piece of pastry - which should be lightly rolled out until it is slightly larger than the base piece - and lay it over the top of the filling pile.
10. Gently press around the edges to form a seal between top and bottom pastry which will prevent the filling from escaping. Take care not to pierce the pastry.
11. I then crimped the edges like you would a cornish pasty, just to ensure the filling stayed where it was and to make an attractive edging.
12. Cut a hole (or two) in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape when cooking, and give the whole thing a good egg wash with the remains of the egg yolk.
13. A light sprinkle of black pepper over the lot, then place into the oven for 40 minutes (remembering to turn the pie if your oven is prone to cooking one side more than the other, after 20 minutes). Once the 40 minutes is up, reduce the oven temperature to 150degC/300degF/Gas 2 and bake for 10 minutes more.
14. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving hot, or allow to cool.