Rye Crust Hand Pies with Roasted Yams, Onion, Fennel and Persian Feta

Rye Crust Hand Pies with Roasted Yams, Onion, Fennel and Persian Feta

The Dahlia Bakery Cook book has a recipe for roasted carrot, leek and goat cheese hand pies which looked interesting so I thought I’d give it a go with the ingredients I had on hand. I also had a whole bag of rye flour left over from Christmas time when my Mom made Piirakka (a Finnish hand pie of sorts) so I decided to find a rye flour pie crust recipe. The version I found is here (you make it in your food processor and I made the version with 1/2 shortening and 5 Tbsp butter). Alternatively, use your favourite pie crust recipe.

The pie crust was delicious but it was a bit finicky to work with (very soft). It has almost a sweet flavour even though there is no sugar in it.

A note about Persian feta…it is awesome. It is creamy and delicate in flavour and lacks that sharp tang you sometimes get from cheapo cow’s milk feta. If you can get it, do but I think this will work just as well with your favourite feta.

Make the filling first and make your pastry while the veggies are roasting.

Filling

3 medium sided onions, halved and sliced3 medium yams cut into cubes
1/2 a fennel bulb sliced
5 cloves garlic minced
3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1 c. Persian feta crumbled

Egg wash

Whisk together:
1 large egg yolk
1 Tbsp cold water

Preheat oven to 425 F. Heat oil in a big cast iron frying pan and toss ingredients (except feta) together. Move to oven for roasting.  If you don’t have a big enough frying pan toss the ingredients in a bowl to coat with the oil and spread on a parchment lined baking sheet. Either way, bake 20 minutes, stir, bake for a further 20 minutes until veggies are tender and remove from oven to cool to room temperature.

Reduce oven temperature to 375 F.

Remove pastry from the fridge and cut into 4 pieces each. Roll on lightly floured service into circles. Using a pastry brush, brush a 1/2 border on the lower half of the circle and fill with 1/4 cup filling, sprinkle with crumbled feta and fold top half over, pinching the pastry edges closed with a fork. Move to parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat until all your dough and filing is used up. Brush the tops of the piece with your egg wash mixture. Bake @ 375 F for about 30 minutes until golden.

They aren’t the prettiest pastries I’ve ever made but they are very tasty!

Hand Pies out of the oven

NOTE: I used the other half of the pastry dough to just do a simple pie.

Sweet potato, fennel and feta pie

 



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