Cornish Pasties

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.

Pumpkin Pasties

Ever since Harry first took a bite out of a pumpkin pasty and gave another one to Ron on their way to Hogwarts for the first time, I’ve had a vision of how these would look and taste.  With a flakey crust and a just sweet enough, spicy pumpkin filling, they’d be more like a little meal than a dessert.   The books don’t mention Harry and friends eating pasties every time they get on the train, but I like to think that a trip to to Hogwarts just wouldn’t be complete without a pumpkin pasty or two.

Most vegan pumpkin pie fillings rely on tofu, but I want my soy-free people to be able to enjoy these, too, so this is recipe for pumpkin filling thickened with blended cashews.  These are only a little sweet like I imagine they’d be in the wizard world.  Not that witches and wizards seem to need to worry about their teeth as almost all the food at Hogwarts is some sort of dessert and Hermione is probably the only one of them who’s seen a dentist.

*note the crocheted owl in the background

Pumpkin Pasties Recipe

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.

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ cup non hydrogenated shortening

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 for an hour.   Prepare the pumpkin filling while dough is chilling

Pumpkin filling

You’ll probably have leftovers so go ahead and halve this if you want, or make a little pie with the leftovers.

1 cup raw cashews

Water to blend cashews

1 16 oz can pumpkin

2 Tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot

½ cup sugar

¾ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

Place cashews in a food processor, add ¼ cup water and mix on high speed until a paste has formed. Add more water 1 Tablespoon at a time if necessary. (You could also try soaking and draining the cashews before hand so not as much water will need to be added.)

Add pumpkin and cornstarch and blend again until smooth and no cashew chunks are visible.  Add a little extra water if necessary. The key is to make sure the filling is thick enough so that it doesn’t ooze out of the little pies.  Add in the sugar and spices and blend to combine.

Assemble

Preheat oven to 400 F

Roll out dough to a little less than ¼ inch thick and cut into 3 ½ to 4 inch circles using a biscuit cutter or a drinking glass.  Take one round and stretch it out a bit and then place about 2 tsps of filling in the center.  Fold circle over into a half moon shape and press down the edges with a fork to close.  Make a little slit in the top and sprinkle with a little sugar if you want.   Transfer to greased or parchment covered baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes until pasties are golden brown.