My main beef with savory hand pies is the crust. I’ve always complained its just too thick, and it kills the flavor. Being a self-serving megalomaniac, I decided to make a thin pastry with a filling that would satisfy gluttony itself. Did I achieve this? Let’s find out.

I decided to make a hot water pastry. Something about the words “a very soft pastry dough” made me think it was cool. The pastry itself was fun too make. It took a while for the shortening to melt, so I just put it on the stove, and while it melted, mixed the flour and salt. I decided to go with half the serving suggested by the recipe book. The dough came out well, it was in fact very soft. Into the fridge it went.

For my filling, I decided to use two separate recipes. The first was lamb chops marinated in honey, mint and cumin (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cumin-honey-mint-marinated-lamb-chops). The lamb chop marinade was easy to make, and I added cayenne pepper and paprika to the recipe. The lamb marinated for four hours, while I worked with the other recipe.

The other recipe was scalloped sweet potatoes and butternut squash (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228878/scalloped-sweet-potatoes-and-butternut-squash/). I loved this recipe but it took a fair amount of time and chopping. The butternut squash and sweet potato had to get tender in the oven and the butternut squash gave me some trouble but with the amount of cooking it went through by the end, it came out very tender and I don’t think I would alter anything as far as cooking time goes. The recipe was not as spicy as I would have liked it to be, I suppose the next time I work with this filling, I’ll use my fair share of either chili, onions and bell pepper to add another texture and more flavor. On its own, the filling tasted great.

While rolling out the pastry, I rolled it too thin. I would stick to rolling it out thin, partially because I don’t care for thick pastries.

Overall, this week went well. I think the pie cut at the table was a little off, because it didn’t taste fine, but the pie I had later tasted great. I’ll discuss this bit with David later. Also, I do think hand pies are great, and might be my forte. Next week is decoration week, and with my odd looking fish, I believe a Koons will be me.