does a pie have to have a bottom and top?

[lucysmam]

Just I was debating a chicken and mushroom pie for myself and oh one night next week but am not very good at pastry so thought I would maybe just make a top for it

no the filling could be in a oven proof dish with a puff pastry top.

If you cant be arsed to make pastry buy the frozen stuff is it Jusroll?

Brill esp the puff pastry.

HTH

You can just make a pie top, cook the filling then pop the top on, paint some eggwash on the top of the pie dish, then put the pastry on the top and put it back in the oven. It's easier to get ready made pastry if you are challenged in this area. Just roll it out to make it thin and pop it on the top. Or, you could roll it out, chop it in half to make 2 triangles, put the cooked filling inside the centre and fold the edges to make a smaller triangle so you'd get a pasty type pie.

DH and DC's love a pie with just a puff pastry top, I'm a bit more traditional though!!

It's not that I can't be arsed lilymoly, I'm just no good at pastry at all! It's just never right

Bought stuff seems like cheating though but I'm going to try it out just to see what it's like. Can't be any worse than my pitiful efforts can it really

nope

just a top works fine

especially if you make the top out of puff pastry, but cut out the size to fit the top of your pie and then bake it on a trrey on it's own and only top the pie once it is done. Then you get no soggy pastry.

Buying puff pastry is not cheating, it is sensible

I like pies with mash toppings, preferably a mix of mashed potato and sweet potato or mashed potato and swede (especially nice for chicken pies).

Never thought of mash as a topping OMDB, that may be worth a go I think.

Liking the bake the top on it's own idea, never thought about soggy pastry either.

Chicken & mushroom with mash topping . . . . saves making a second lot of mash to go with it!