It seems like all the Hogwarts kids eat dessert 24/7, but they have to eat real food sometimes, too, right? Ron shoves a Cornish Pasty into his mouth at some point during the Triwizard Tournament, so I take it these are probably not an everyday Hogwarts food. These savory pockets of dough filled with seitan, carrots, potatoes and onions do seem like they’d make a great spectator food!
Technically, I don’t think I’m allowed to call these Cornish Pasties because they don’t have the traditional turnip or rutabaga and they weren’t made in Cornwall, but I did my best to stick to tradition even though I added some spices and wine, which traditional recipes don’t have.
What I really like about these is that you don’t need to cook the filling before filling the pies – the traditional recipes seem to just place the meat and veg right onto the dough and bake. For this reason, it’s important that you cut your potatoes and vegetables pretty small, so that they can cook through before the dough gets too crunchy. Seitan is perfect in these, but I bet some marinated tempeh or fake chicken strips would be great, too.
Dough
This is the empanada dough from Veganomicon without the cornmeal and it’s the easiest to work with, flakiest crust I’ve ever made. It’s the same as the pumpkin pasties, but with whole wheat flour and a bit more margarine.
2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup non hydrogenated shortening
2 tablespoons non hydrogenated margarine
½ – ¾ cup cold water
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the shortening in small chunks and mix on low-med speed until the dough is crumbly and resembles pebbles. Add the vinegar to ½ a cup of the water and add slowly while the mixer is going or in batches if not using an electric mixer. The dough should form a ball. If it’s still crumbly add a little more water until it holds together. Form dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
Pasty Filling
12oz seitan cut into 1/4 inch cubes
6-8 oz potatoes (4 small potatoes) – peeled and diced into 1/4 inch cubes
1 cup of carrots – diced into 1/4 inch cubes
1 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 cup white wine or broth
Preheat the oven to 375. In a bowl combine the seitan, potatoes, carrots and onions. Add the salt,pepper, thyme, rosemary and wine. Mix and set aside while you roll out the dough.
Roll the dough into a circle that is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 6 or 7, six inch circles. I used my 4 cup measuring cup for this. I got 4 circles the first time, and then three more rolling out the scraps.
Take a circle and roll it out a bit more with your rolling pin and put a heaping 1/4 cup of filling into the center of the dough. Fold the dough over and press with a fork to seal the edges. Place the pasties on a baking sheet and cut three slits in the top of each and then brush with some unsweetened non-dairy milk to make them shiny.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until the tops are golden brown and you can poke a knife or fork through one of the slits and feel that the potatoes are done.
