Pasties

When my husband and I started in the Society for Creative Anachronism, one of the important features of serving* at a medieval-style feast was the ability to take home leftovers. Feast leftovers could frequently get a thrifty poor college student through a month if carefully managed.

Many years later, most people who cater our events try to be more concious about food waste, including myself. No one is going to go home hungry, but I try not to have trays of leftovers. My current group just doesn't have the college student population to support. ;) However, we still all cook for the high end of attendence estimates, so there are often some very tasty  leftovers available during clean up, and it's nice not to have to cook for a couple meals.

This weekend I brought home a quart of mustard stewed chicken. I'm catering one of these in 2 months, so have been working on the last kinks from my recipes, so tonight, I taught my husband to make mini pasties.

The important part here is the crust. Without gluten, it does not want to play nice. Bob's Red Mill GF Crust Recipe is my go-to, but needs more structure as a handpie.  We have to add those structural elements, or all is sadness. So I have added egg and xanthan gum, and I am so happy.

Half of these are just stewed chicken, half have spinach and chicken. All are tasty. Use any filling you want, go crazy. These are the original "honey don't forget your lunch."

Crimping hand pies is an art, born of practice. Don't worry if you're messy, you will get there. The most common problem is overstuffing- the size I did was 2T max filling. Overstuffed pasties tear and won't seal.

1.5c. Bob's AP flour
1/2t salt
1/2c butter, diced
1/2t xanthan gum
1 egg
4-6 tbl milk

Preheat 400. Mix butter & dry ingredients until corned in texture. Add egg and milk, form into ball. Cover and let sit in freezer for 15 min & fridge for an hour. Take a portion, roll out to 1/4 thickness. Use a biscuit cutter or top of waterglass to cut circles. Put in 1T filling, fold and crimp around the filling. Bake for 10 min.

*Servers don't have to pay for feast, and eat the "brokens" or the platters that come back and the extra food that doesn't fit on the communal platters. I had a 4 month period where I survived on milk, eggs, yogurt, and leftovers from 1 event a month.