Finally, the Christmas pie recipe you've all been waiting for!

Hi there my lovelies,

Finally, I'm getting round to catching up on some blogging. Not sure how useful this here Christmas pie recipe will be to you, now that the festive season is over and done with for another year, but here it is in all it's glory, ready for you to print out and frame to put above your mantel piece :)

It's a surprisingly easy recipe, but really well-loved by all who try it. It makes for a perfect Christmas Eve tea. You can just use frozen shortcrust pastry if you're short of time, but the basic recipe i use is so easy to make it seems daft not to whip up a batch of your own delicious pastry. This recipe is based on one from BBC Good Food magazine from years ago, but over the years i've made a few tweaks which i think improve it quite a bit. The other great thing about this pie is that it can be made well in advanced and frozen- i usually make a couple at a time- one for work, one for christmas, and this year, one for pie club!

For the pastry, I use the BBC Good Food basic shortcrust recipe... So easy, but it's best to double up the quantities to make sure you've enough for this substantial pie. I also add a tablespoon or so of paprika, which makes the recipe my own and means the pastry has a lovely deep colour when it's baked.

Ingredients:

-2 tbsp olive oil
- knob of butter
- 1 finely chopped onion
-500g sausagemeat
- dash of lemon juice
-100g fresh white breadcrumbs
-85g dried apricots
-60g canned or tinned chestnuts, chopped
-2 tsp fresh thyme. dried will do if you can't get fresh, but the smell of fresh thyme is so delicious it's a shame to miss out!
-100g dried cranberries
-500g turkey breast, diced into bite sizes pieces
-beaten egg to glaze

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees (170 degrees for a fan oven)

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a frying pan or wok and gently fry the onions and turkey until nicely browned and cooked through. Leave to cool down for a bit

2. In a large bowl, combine the sausagemeat, lemon juice, breadcrumbs, apricots, chestnuts, thyme, and cranberries. Add the onion and turkey pieces and mix using your hands.

3. Roll out 3/4 of the pastry and cover the bottom of the pie dish. Now, squidge all of the christmassy goodness filling into the case. Brush the edges with beaten egg.

4. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cover the filling. Either pinch the edge or use a fork to seal the edge.

5.  Brush the pastry with the beaten egg to glaze. Use the off-cuts to decorate in any way you wish... christmas cookie cutters are always a good option. I quite like to glaze the top of the pie, but not the decoration, which gives a nice contrast.

6. Bung your lovely pie in the oven. Bake for between 40-60 mins depending on your oven, until it has turned a lovely brown colour.

Enjoy. Delicious served warm or cold!