Help me make a decent pie! Please.

[Janek]

First (potentially disastrous) attempt in the oven and I wish I'd come here first! I want to make individual pies, with pastry top and bottom. I have a pie tin and the holes are 10cm across and 4 cm deep.

I made pastry with 250g of flour, and that seems to be the right amount. It all went wrong when I started to bake blind - how long do you do it for? Is it necessary? My pastry shrank. I've put my filling into the pies, put the tops on (with a slit in the top) put them in the oven and I'm currently hoping for the best!

I made too much filling, so enough for a less disastrous second attempt? We'll be eating them, but the jury is out on whether or not we'll enjoy them!!!

None of the recipes I found online thought it was necessary to have pastry on the bottom, which is just wrong.

Can anyone offer any words of wisdom or point me in the direction of some sensible instructions?

This is the channel for you. He has a whole bunch of pie recipes. I've made some and they turned out great. Pastry included. Can't recall if this one has pastry at the bottom but have a rummage in his channel.

Jamie Oliver has some on his YouTube channel too.

Pastry on top only is pot pie.

I don’t blind bake the cases I just have cooked filling. That I add to my lined tins. I also don’t quite understand your hole description. I make mine in enamel tins the old fashioned white ones with blue rims.

The pastry shrank because you stretched it when you lined the dish, you didn't prick the bottom or put in a piece of grease proof paper and a few dried beans to hold it down. Try again-but ease the pastry into the dish with a decent overlap. Don't bake it for too long, you just want to firm it up so it doesn't go soggy.

@HappiestSleeping YouTube is a great idea, I never think of it, but will definitely look before next time!

@ViciousCurrentBun interesting that you don't bake blind. I think that could have improved my outcome today!

@CurlewKate I did stretch the pastry, you are right. I knew about the beans, but I thought it would be okay without... I didn't know about the stretching, but that was very clearly the problem!

The pies were surprisingly good, considering. I wasn't that keen on the filling, but that was my own fault.

And they held their shape, they did look like pies. Or like a pie's poor relation, at least. Thanks for the tips everyone!

I cheat and do deconstructed pies.
Make filling. Cook disks of pastry (pre bought puff in my case). Serve on plates with veg.

I don't blind bake mince pie pastry - and I hand make that pastry.

Hmmm, interesting, I wouldn't either.

The Jamie Oliver/ Warwick Davis beef and Stilton pie is completely magnificent. Happy to post a pic of the recipe if you like. It's a full pastry pie, one that you slice and have a piece of each, not what I'd usually make but it's so worth it. No special equipment required, we make it in a deep loose bottomed cake tin, and you can absolutely skip the Stilton if you don't like it.

Oh and no blind baking required, and the pastry turns out crisp and beautiful every time.

I’d love this recipe if you don’t mind posting the picture. My MIL loves a steak and Stilton pie from a restaurant that has closed down so it would be really nice to make it for her. (Not that I imagine I can rival a restaurant).

@Mazuslongtoenail here you go! It really is worth the effort! I had to add the pic of Warwick Davis too

Hmmm...not sure that's actually legible, hopefully this is better!

Thank you @canihaveacoffeeplease I’m looking forward to making that for my MIL. x

If your pastry shrank it may be that it needed time to rest before cooking, ideally an hour but 30 mins or so in a pinch. You also need to make sure the pastry is cold and the oven is properly hot when you put it in, otherwise the butter/oil in the pastry will just melt before it cooks, causing more shrinkage.
I would also leave a bit of overhang to help support the pastry and stop it sliding down, as well, plus the baking beans, uncooked rice etc