Fruit Chaat Pies

A traditional European sweet pie pastry, stuffed with a Pakistani inspired spicy fruit salad!

I’m not confident when it comes to baking. You see, I have very little experience in this domain of the kitchen since it wasn’t a custom in my household to eat dessert.  Sure, we enjoyed sweet dishes from time to time, but they never required any baking – everything was done on the stove.  Cakes, biscuits and pies were bought at the local shops so our oven was used to store the frying pans! 

I decided to try baking mince pies and found Paul Hollywood’s BBC Food recipe really easy to follow.  The result was warm mince pies which tasted great! 

This year, I’m being a little daring and trying out my own filling....have a go and see what you think!

Fruit Chaat Pies

Makes: approx 16-18

Prep & Cooking Time: approx 45 minutes

Ingredients:

Filling

2 peaches, pitted & finely chopped

1 banana, finely chopped

½ pomegranate

150g sweet green seedless grapes, finely chopped

1 orange zest

2 tsp chaat masala

2½  tbs brown sugar

Pastry (this part of the recipe has been taken from Paul Hollywood, BBC Food)

375g plain flour

250g butter (plus little extra for lining muffin trays)

125g caster sugar (plus extra for sprinkling on top before baking)

1 egg

Small amount of cold water

Garnish

icing sugar

pomegranate kernels

Preparation:

1. Prepare the pastry.

You can continue to follow my recipe or refer to this link for the Paul Hollywood way: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_mince_04604

Combine all the pastry ingredients (apart from water) and rub together.  Add a tablespoon of water at a time (if required) to form a dough.  Once the dough has formed, wrap in cling film or place in container with lid and put into refrigerator to chill.  

2. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6

3. Prepare your filling ingredients.  Ensure fruit is chopped up small.  Combine all ingredients together.  Cover and set aside to allow the sugar to dissolve with fruit juices for approx 5-10 minutes.  To quicken this process, keep stirring it and place bowl in a sunny/warm area.  Alternatively, cook ingredients for 2-3 minutes on the stove then allow to cool.

4. Prepare your baking trays by lining them with butter.  Alternatively, use silicone muffin cases – I found that they worked best: they didn’t require greasing and the pies came out much more easily from the moulds than the ones I baked in trays.

For the cutters, look around the kitchen for circular shapes which are larger in size than your muffin cases/tray.  I used a mug for the base and a glass for the tops! Or, you may be a seasoned baker, with proper cutters handy?!

5. Remove pastry from refrigerator and roll out a big chunk until approx 3mm in width.  Cut out the base shape and place into muffin case/tray.  Ensuring excess juices are drained off first, put a tablespoon of filling into your pie base.  Fill only three quarters of the way up.

Cut a circle for the top and place on pie.  Gently press the edges around the top together to seal the pie.  This is where I found silicone cases to be very handy – It’s easier to manipulate the pie and get a good seal around the top.

6. Repeat until all pies are done.  Sprinkle caster sugar over the pies and place in oven. Bake for 20 minutes.

7. Remove pies from oven and allow to cool.  Remove pies from tray or cases and place on a plate with some pomegranate kernels.  Sprinkle icing sugar on top and present!

  

Enjoy your Fruit Chaat Pies on their own or with custard/cream. 

 Next time, why not experiment with other fruit fillings?