Prep Time 15 minutes - Total Time 1 hour - Serves 5
Does cheese and onion pie remind anybody else of UK school dinners? It does to me and unfortunately, it’s not a good memory, but luckily it always came with a mountain of chips and baked beans so not all bad.
It took me a long time to get into cheese and onion pie after the school's poor effort (must try harder) but thankfully now I love the stuff.
I also love cheese and Branson pickle sandwiches so for a little extra flavour I add Branson pickle to my pie.
Ingredients
2 medium onions, cut in half and finely sliced.
3 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves, save some for the egg wash.
350 g of Red Leicester.
350 g of Mild cheddar.
150 g of Blue cheese.
1 knob of butter.
2 egg yolks, whisked.
2 sheets or 2 blocks of ready-made shortcrust pastry.
2 tbsps of mushroom ketchup.
2 tbsps of Branson pickle.
Method
Fry the onions along with the fresh thyme, the butter, a drizzle of olive oil, a good pinch of salt. Cook the onions over a medium-low heat for 20 minutes, you want to get them really nice and soft but without colouring too much. Once the onions are done add the mushroom ketchup and continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Take the onions off the heat and allow to completely cool.
Take the Red Leicester, Mild cheddar and grate or pop into a food processor and wiz up to a crumb (that’s what I do). Place into a large bowl along with the cold onions and mix together. Now take the blue cheese, break up into nuggets and gently mix with the cheese and onions but being careful not to break the blue cheese up.
Flour the tart tin then roll out one of the pasty to the thickness of a £1 coin. Carefully line the tart tin leaving a slight overhang and trim away any excess. Spread the Branson pickle evenly over the base then pour in the cheese mix. Get the filling in nice and compact and filled to the brim.
Roll out the second pasty and again to the thickness of a £1 coin and top your pie. Give it a good egg wash, sprinkle with a few more thyme leave and a sprinkle of salt. Place the pie on a large baking tray and pop into a preheated oven set at 180℃ for 40 minutes.
Once the pie is ready I like to serve mine with some big chunky chips and baked beans.