Puff Pastry Pork Pot Pies

Didn't take a lot of photos of cooking up this month's batch of pot pies, but I figured I'd get a few highlights.

First up, a little shot showing the ring of pastry I've started using rather than a whole bottom shell.

This serves a few purposes. For one thing, the filling cooks a bit quicker since there's less insulation on the bottom so the heat from the oven conducts in much better. Secondly, I don't have to worry about getting that bit of mushy, undercooked crust in the middle of the bottom. Finally, it works better with the amount of puff pastry that I've been making: one half batch can be split into 1/3 for the bottoms and 2/3 for the top, rather than trying to stretch 8 pieces into full bottoms and tops.

Anyway, the assembled pies look quite nice.

I trimmed the excess top shell this time rather than trying to shove it into place. As much as I try, it's really not easy to try to roll a rectangle into a circle. But that does leave me with a dilemma: what to do with the trimmed off bits of puff pastry?

20 minutes at 400f takes care of them quite nicely.

Some other notes:

I used 1/4c flour and 1/4c oil to make the roux to thicken the filling. This turned out to be a good amount for the 4 pies.

My bacon went moldy on me and I had to throw it out rather than use it in these pies. As such, the pies are literally inedible and bring shame upon me and my meager cooking skills. By which I mean it actually tastes just fine without it, but in the future I'll be freezing the leftover bacon rather than trusting the combination of refrigeration and curing to keep the nasties at bay.

Broiling the pork after brining it overnight worked really well. I do love broiler pans, they're a miracle of modern science.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to munching on these over the next month. They should be quite tasty.