Prep time:

Cooking time: 1 hour

Total time:

Serves: 6

200g Plain Flour

40g Strong White Flour

50g Unsalted Butter

100ml Water

1tsp Salt

60g Lard

6 Quail's Eggs

1 Onion (finely chopped)

350g Pork Loin (finely chopped)

100g Unsmoked Streaky Bacon (finely chopped)

Small Bunch of Sage

1 Free Range Egg (beaten)

Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper

Caroline Cowan and Sarah Bristow from Plum Tree Catering share three crowd-pleasing dishes for an irresistible autumnal picnic...

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a 6 hole muffin tin.
  2. To make the pastry, sift the flours into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Bring the water and salt to a boil then add the lard and stir until the lard has melted.
  3. Pour the lard and water over the flour mixture and stir to form a dough. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and work into a smooth ball (you must work quickly or the dough will become too firm to handle).
  4. Roll the pastry out and cut into 6 x 6inch circles and line the muffin tin. Cut 6 x 4inch circles for the lids and set them aside.
  5. For the filling, cook the quail’s eggs in a pan of boiling water for two minutes then refresh in cold water, and set aside.
  6. Put the onion, pork, bacon and sage into a bowl, season well and mix until well combined. Spoon a little of the mixture into each lined pie case, place a shelled quail’s egg in the centre and spoon over a little more filling.
  7. Brush the edge of each pie case with a little beaten egg, place the lids on top and crimp the edges together to seal completely. Make a slit in the top of each pie, and bake for 40/60 minutes until golden brown.

  • pictures: David Merewether

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