What a pleasure to sit down and enjoy this Bacon & Egg PIe. So filling and full of those lovely flavours.
Watching an episode of the Hairy Bikers recently I saw them enjoying Delia Smith making an egg and bacon pie, from her TV series in the 70s. I have the book that accompanied that series so I took a look and found the recipe, which seemed very simple to make when Delia did it, and decided to give it a try.
It is different from many other bacon and egg pie recipes since it use some hard boiled egg to fill the pie, as well as raw egg mixed with milk.
The pastry is made with lard, though butter could be used too, which gives a lighter colour to the baked pie too.
For the bacon the recipe calls for streaky bacon, which is what is known as bacon anyway. However my streaky bacon was unsmoked as, I believe, was Delia’s. I am not sure how readily unsmoked bacon is available elsewhere but smoked would work too, it would just change the flavour profile.
My pie baked very well, having a nice flaky consistency to the pastry and the delicious filling. This pie is ideal served cold, so is great for summer picnics or simply just for a nice cold lunch. However serving it warm works well also.
Pork Pies are another typically British bake, but those are made with hot water crust pastry to give it the defining structure.
Bacon & Egg Pie – Video
Ingredients:
for the pastry:
- 175g(1 cups + 3 tbsp) plain flour(based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup)
- 75g (5 tbsp + 1 tsp) lard, cubed
- pinch of salt
- ice cold water, to be used 1 tbsp at a time.
- Milk to brush on the top.
For the filling:
- 3 large eggs(XL in USA), hard boiled and cut into small pieces
- 6 rashers of streaky bacon
- 150ml(1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) milk
- 1 large egg(xl in USA) uncooked
- salt and pepper to taste
Method:
- Fry the bacon in a pan until the fat begins to leak out. Remove the bacon and pat dry, then chop into small pieces. The bacon should not be fried until it is crispy.
- Place the flour and salt into a large bowl and mix together.
- Add the lard and cut into the flour, or rub in with fingertips(I did this by pulsing in my processor and then tipped the mixture into a bowl).
- Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing into the dough with a knife, until it clumps together.
- Only add as much water as is needed to make the dough start to clump.
- Squeeze the mixture in your hand to pull it into a dough.
- If the mixture is still a little dry as you squeeze it into a dough wet your fingers to add just a little more moisture.
- Form the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F.
- Grease and line a 23 cm cake tin, or use a 23cm tart tin that has a removable base.
- Divide the pastry dough into to equal pieces.
- Place one piece onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to a diameter wide enough to line the bottom and side of the tin.
- Carefully place the pastry dough into the tin and patch anywhere that needs it.
- Roll out the second piece of dough to a diameter of 23 cm/9 inches.
- Place 1/2 the chopped bacon onto the pastry base.
- Sprinkle the chopped egg over the top, and then the remaining chopped bacon too.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Beat the remaining egg into the milk and pour it into the egg and bacon.
- Fold the edge of the pastry over to form a rim around the edge.
- Brush that rim with a little milk, or water.
- Place the 23cm pastry disc onto the top and gently press down around the edge, to seal against the base.
- Brush the top with milk and make a hole in the centre.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 180C/160C Fan/350 F and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the tin to serve.
- You can chill the pie in the fridge and serve it cold.