Sweet Potato Pasties

This recipe has been adapted from the BBC Great British Bake-off book but is slightly healthier – only having the cheese in the pasty rather than in the pastry as well! It’s a very tasty pie with a sweet filling given a little heat from the chilli and creaminess from the goats cheese. Que aproveche!

The recipe makes between 4-5 pasties.

It takes about 1h 15 mins to make (although a lot of that time is baking).

Ingredients

For the filling

1 large sweet potato¹, peeled and cut into cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 small spring of rosemary, finely chopped
¼ tsp chilli flakes²
2 tbsp pine nuts
Approx. 100g goats’ cheese log³

For the pastry

200g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
100g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Approx. 3 tbsp cold water
1 beaten egg⁴

Method

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Put the sweet potato cubes in a roasting tin and toss with the olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes.
In a food processor set up for pastry making, put the plain flour, salt and cayenne pepper. Give it a quick whizz, then add the unsalted butter and combine until you get a breadcrumb-like consistency. Keeping the motor running add the cold water, 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together into a ball. Wrap it in reusable beeswax cloth⁵ and store in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
Remove your sweet potatoes from the oven and add the garlic, rosemary and chilli flakes. Turn it a few times to get an even distribution and then return to the oven for 3 minutes. Afterwards, remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
When cool, mash the sweet potatoes with a fork and add the pine nuts, ensuring everything is evenly mixed.
Roll out the pastry so that you’ll have a square 26 cm x 26 cm (from the off cuts you might be able to make an extra pasty). Cut these into 4 squares, each 13 cm x 13 cm (see picture).
The pasties will be triangular, so add about 2 tbsp sweet potato filling to one side of an imaginary diagonal line cutting the square in half. On top of this crumble about a heaped teaspoon of goats’ cheese. Leave a 1 cm border around the edge.
Brush some beaten egg along the border and fold the top of the pasty over. Using your fingers seal the edge of the pasty. Repeat for the other pasties.
Arrange them on a baking tray and brush each one with beaten egg. Using a knife put two steam holes in the top and then bake the pasties for 25 – 30 minutes (at 200°C). To ensure an even colouring, you may wish to the turn the pasties round about two thirds of the way through baking.
You can either eat them hot or let them cool for a picnic snack.

Tips

Only need 1 sweet potato, then just buy one to avoid food waste. Big Sainsbury’s stores sell single sweet potatoes and of course, a greengrocer such as Martins or E Corden in the Derbion (Eagle) Market will sell them.
Until recently I use to just buy a replacement jar of herbs and spices when I ran out. However, to cut your waste, you can go to the Fig Tree in Derbion (Eagle) Market and there you can fill up your jars (and it’s usually cheaper than the supermarket). Also, you’ll get a much better selection and you’ll discover loads of different extras to spice up your cooking.
If you only need a small amount of cheese, then visit your local cheesemonger. In Derby, Morgan and Sons is very good in the Derbion (Eagle) Market. Use a reusuable container to cut down waste.
Don’t throw the remaining beaten egg away. It’ll keep overnight if you wanted to scramble it with another for breakfast or lunch. Alternatively, use it to glaze bread or just freeze it in a small pot for the next time you’re baking these delicious pasties.
Reusable beeswax clothes can be used in place of clingfilm (cutting plastic waste). They last about 12 months and at the end can be composted. They can be purchased in Derby from The Fig Tree in Derbion (Eagle) Market.

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