”You have to taste a culture to understand it.”

– Deborah Cater

Potato and leek hand pies

Hand pies with potato and leek filling are tasty and can be eaten for lunch, light dinner, or as a snack on the go. It is a cheap and delicious meal.

I like the vegetarian version of these pies, but you can also add some bacon to the filling. 

These pies are easy to make using a store bought puff pastry, but you can also use home made puff pastry or yeast dough instead.

Step by step baking tutorial
Serving Size:
Makes 4 big hand pies
Time:
Prep time: 30 min
Wait time: 20 min
Bake time: 20 min
Difficulty:
Medium

Ingredients

  • 1 medium potato (about 200 g / 0.45 lb)
  • 100 g ( 0.25 lb) leek
  • 20 g (1.5 tbsp) butter
  • 100 g (0.4 cups) cooking cream or heavy cream
  • 1 generous tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/3 tsp curry powder
  • ⅓ tsp salt
  • Black pepper (to taste)
  • A sheet of puff pastry (260g / 0.6 lb)
  • 1 egg for brushing the pies

Directions

  1. Peel and wash the potato. Cut it into small pieces and boil in water with 1/2 tsp of salt. When the potato is soft, drain the water and put the potato in a bowl. Mash it with a fork and leave it to cool.
  2. Cut the leek into thin slices. It is also fine to use the leaves of the leek. Each leaf just needs to be washed separately to make sure that there is no dirt left on them.
  3. Melt the butter in a pan and fry the leek in it on medium heat. Cover the pan with a lid and let the leek cook for a few minutes till it softens, stirring once in a while to make sure it does not burn.
  4. Add the cooking cream in the pan and a bit of water (about 150 ml) so that there is some liquid to stew the leek. The water and cooking cream will create sauce for the leek filling.
  5. Add to the leek also salt, pepper, curry powder and Dijon mustard. Mix everything, put the lid on the pan and let it cook for a little till the leek is soft and the sauce has thickened and reduced.
  6. Taste the leek and the sauce to see if you want to add more spices.
  7. Remove the pan from the stove and add the leek with the sauce in the bowl with the mashed potato. Mix everything and let it cool to room temperature.
  8. In the meanwhile remove the puff pastry from the fridge or freezer so that it also softens to room temperature.
  9. And heat the oven to 180° Celsius or 400° Fahrenheit.
  10. Cut the puff pastry sheet(s) into squares depending on how big hand pies you want to make. I buy a big puff pastry sheet, which I cut into 4 squares, which make 4 big pies (1 of such pies is sufficient as a snack or a light meal).
  11. Put the filling in the middle of each puff pastry square.
  12. Break an egg in a glass and slightly beat it with a fork. Using a pastry brush, brush the sides of the puff pastry squares with the egg. It is helpful if the puff pastry is somewhat dry. If the puff pastry is soft and easily sticks together, it can be skipped.
  13. Fold one of the ends of the pastry square over the filling to the end on the opposite side forming a triangle and push the puff pastry lightly around the edges to make sure it sticks together. Press on the filling lightly to spread it more equally inside the pie.
  14. Using a fork, push on the sides of the pie to make sure they stick together and will not open while baking. And punch the top of the pie with the fork to make a few holes, so that the pies don’t break when puffing up in the oven.
  15. Arrange the pies on a baking tray, which is covered either by parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. If you are using parchment paper, dust it with a bit of flour.
  16. Brush top of the pies gently with the egg and bake for about 20 minutes till they have puffed up and look golden brown.
  17. Remove the baking tray from the oven and let the pies cool for a few minutes before removing them from the tray.
  18. Enjoy! 🙂