Thyme 4 Pie - GBBO Week 6 - Pastry Week.

 After cutting it fine with GBBO baking last week, this week I thought there would be no way to find the time to join in. We've got one night away at the end of the week for my 40th birthday - It's a big deal because we hardly ever get any time away without the kids. I know of some families who manage to have proper holidays away without their kids - sometimes a week or even two weeks - but for us it's rare to get any time away. The first time we managed it was last year when we managed to have 1 night away in London after 12 years without a break from the kids. And after months of planning ahead, we're going to get just 1 night away this year too.

So I should be packing and getting organised. But what do I do instead? Start thinking about pastry. I've got NO ingredients in the house as I'm waiting for an online grocery delivery this evening. I've got Miss T off school not feeling too well. Events are conspiring against me.

Then I start to feel hungry. Really hungry. There's nothing left in the fridge to eat for lunch. Miss T has just eaten the last piece of ham in a wrap. So I decide to make my pie using whatever I can find and then eat it for lunch.

I'm rummaging in the fridge - literally nothing suitable for pie. I have some frozen onions in the freezer so that's my starting point. I fry them in olive oil and add some dried thyme.

It gives me the idea for a "Thyme 4 Pie" theme as I can then do 4 pies like they had on GBBO. I throw in a tin of baked beans and some grated cheese. That's going to have to do as my pie filling. Probably the weirdest pie filling ever. But without any groceries,  I'm out of options!

4 shortcrust pastry pies: Thyme 4 pie

I made my shortcrust pastry with 175g plain flour, 90g butter, 15 ml cold water and half an egg. Using the other half of the egg to glaze the pies.

I always use my food processor to make shortcrust pastry as it just makes such light work of it. The great thing about pastry is that it needs so few ingredients - Flour, butter and egg I did have at least.

I'm a terrible hoarder so I tend to keep any foil cases from shop bought pies. I decided to use these as they were small enough for me to make 4 pies. After taking this photo I actually switched to even smaller ones, using old mince pie cases instead as I wasn't sure if there was enough pastry to make these slightly bigger ones.

I rolled out the pastry and lined the four pastry cases. Filled them with filling. Added a pastry lid. Did some basic 'decorations' and made a steam hole in each. The first one was supposed to look like a clock to represent 'time' but it didn't turn out too clearly. After an egg glaze I popped them in the oven at 200C for about 20 minutes. I used the leftover pastry to make some pastry letters to spell 'thyme'.

Then I wanted to take some photos. I had hoped to find some fresh thyme in the garden for photo purposes but it was looking in a very sorry state and there wasn't much out there.

The next problem was that the end of the table with the best natural daylight was being used by Miss T to make a 'den' for her cuddly cheetah 'sparkles'. I had told her to use a box as she wouldn't be able to make a curved den that she was planning from cardboard but she was ignoring me, taking up my photo space, and trying it anyway.

Two of the 4 pies had slight leakage issues but two were fine with no soggy bottom.

So another mixed week for me with my baking. But a success for Miss T. I'm pleased to say that she proved me wrong. With perseverance and determination she made her curved den. I'm so proud of her for sticking with it and not listening to me after all!

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