November is my birthday month so I thought I would celebrate it with a walk down memory lane with one of my favorite things. A savory pie! I find that is sort of thing hits nicely when the seasons turn a corner into fall and then on to the cold months of winter. The variations are endless. They are an everyday sort of thing but can also add a special sort of comfort to the holidays. Sausage rolls and a nice roasted pepper and feta bite sized puff are lovely as o’devours around Thanksgiving and the Chicken Pot Pie is our favorite around Halloween. The samosa handpie and the green bean spiced roll are fine vegetarian options and the heavy sausage roll from Michael James’ cookbook The Tivoli Road Baker is one of my favorites with his chili ginger sauce.

Following is an onslaught of savory pie recipes and short stories of why I make them and where they came from. All of them are made with a homemade puff pastry. The recipe for puff I posted in January and can be found in the recipe archive here. There you will find the formula and a tutorial for making puff pastry and from there you can just fill you puff with whatever fillings you desire!

To begin, let’s make Chicken Pot Pie. This is a family tradition around Halloween in my family. I don’t know why. It is possible that it was an easy meal to have done ahead of time so when the evening got hectic with trick or treating my mother already had a warm dinner ready for everyone.

To accomplish the task of a homemade chicken pot pie we will make the puff pastry, poach the chicken and make the white sauce, also known as the bechamel. Then it is just a simple assembly and quick bake, for a very pleasant pot pie dinner.

Assemble your chicken pot pies. You can make roughly 4 personal pies in smaller dishes or you can go for a big pie in a casserole dish or even a pie dish.

Fill dishes with the filling. Dollop on a bit of butter and some chopped parsley. Roll your puff pastry to roughly 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cut your puff pastry into squares. You will probably only need half of the puff pastry you made from the formula above and can reserve the rest for something else later. Place the puff squares over the filling and let the edges drape over the side. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes or until ready to bake. Before baking, egg wash with a mix of 1 egg yolk to 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Cut some slits on the top so the steam can escape when baking. Put in a 400 degree F oven and bake until golden brown and bubbly.

My introduction to meat pies and sausage rolls was on a train from Sydney to Guyra when I was fifteen. With the “tomato sauce” it was a perfect travel snack and I fell in love. They call it “smashing” a pie in Australia; when you just straight up devour it, licking your fingers with sauce on your face. I was really good at smashing a pie.

When I started baking I remember finding recipes in magazines for meat pies and sausage rolls. Tearing them out and filing them in the mess that was my recipe binder. I have yet to try them, but I will add the recipes here for anyone interested. In this pie variation it seems that the bottom part of the pie is much like a regular pie dough, and the top a puff pastry. That makes sense to me.

A few years into Kate’s Bread, I came across a newly released book by famed baker, Michael James. He owned an operated a Bakery in Melbourne called Tivoli Road Bakery. It was the first time the act of making savory pies and sausage rolls made sense. His recipes and process looked daunting at first, but in fact it was perfection and clarity in his process, each step outlined thoroughly and completely. His puff pastry formula and his sausage roll recipe became staples in my holiday bakeshop.

A few years after discovering his book he ended up in Ojai and came to my bakeshop for a visit with his lovely wife and daughter. I believe we are all kindred spirits in the kitchen. He and his wife are now in the process of opening up another bakery, as they left Tivoli Road years ago. His book still remains one of my all time favorites. We have made many promises to meet up again and I am hoping on my next trip to visit my sister down under, I can make my way to Melbourne for a visit to his new bakery and a bite of one of his pies.

Below is his recipe for the the Pork, Caramelized Apple and Fennel Sausage Roll: Although, I give the recipe here, I believe it is worth purchasing any and all of his books. They are a kitchen cook book staple.

On another adventure to Australia I found myself at The Bread Social in Tweed Heads.

It was a day of truly good eating and my first experience with the pie scene in Australia as something beyond the quick pie shop mince options with packaged tomato sauce. We indulged in an assortment and yet with all of my love for the meat pie, my favorite pie from the Bread Social was a Pea and Mint Veggie Roll. It was a highly spiced and herbed roll made with split peas, fresh green beans and a combination of yogurt and ricotta. I was so enamored that I reached out to the owners over Instagram and asked for the recipe. It was a long shot, as most cooks keep recipes close, but I also knew that most bakers were delighted to share. They quickly responded with the whole formula for the veggie roll, along with another recipe I enjoyed, the Portuguese Custard Tart. I will share that recipe another time.

Below is the formula for the Pea and Mint Veggie Roll. The puff pastry process and rolling of the rolls is the same process as the sausage roll above. The only difference is the filling. This can also be eaten with the Tomato, chile and ginger sauce as the spice of the sauce compliments the multiple flavors dancing around in the roll.

A quick note: This formula was given to me in the production scale of the bakery. This means it was very large. I have scaled it down significantly. In doing so the measurements may seem odd. It is all measured in grams. Due to the nature of the recipe, I believe it is okay to get creative and act a little organically in your measurements and mix ins. I would try to stay pretty on point with the bulk ingredients such as the peas, beans, onions, carrots, celery and garlic; also the bread crumbs, ricotta and yogurt, but the herbs and spices can be altered to your liking.

The Samosa Hand Pie sort of evolved in my kitchen and I do consider it one of my favorites. To me, this is the perfect snack lunch dinner sort of meal. It is easy to go, not too messy and full of flavor. It is a combination of a pie, a samosa and an empanada. You can go veggie all the way or add some sausage to it if you’d like. This pie became a staple in my bakeshop for years. The inspiration for this pie came from a recipe found in an old Saveur Magazine for Samosas. Make the filling and wrap in puff pastry and bake instead of fry.

ROASTED RED PEPPER AND FETA ROLLS WITH THYME

For Thanksgiving we make little savory puff bites for appetizers. They can be cut small and served on platters at tables before the big meal. The are buttery and warm and perfect for getting the feasting started.

For these you will need your puff pastry, a jar of roasted red peppers, feta cheese and thyme.

Roll out your puff in a rectangle, 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. I would lean on the thinner side as these are smaller bites, but you have to be careful that it is not too thin that your puff rips with the moisture of the peppers. Cut the dough into strips roughly 3 inches wide. The length doesn’t really matter. Cut the peppers into strips and lay the strips along the bottom half of the puff, along the length of the dough. Top the peppers with feta cheese. Egg wash the top edge of the dough. Roll the peppers and feta from the bottom edge up to the top and seam at the egg wash side. Cut into little rolls and inch long and tray, seam side down. Chill for 15 minutes. Before baking, egg wash the top of the roll and top with little sprigs of thyme. Bake at 400 degress F until golden brown.