Mushrooms are one of my favourite foods - I could eat them every day, and as delicious as they taste they are also incredibly beautiful in their various delicate forms.
This is the perfect comfort food for when the days are getting cooler and shorter and mushrooms abound.
Inspired by misty and damp mornings and crops of mushrooms springing up everywhere, how nice would it be to make this after a day of foraging (for those who know their mushrooms!)
It is absolutely worth the effort to make your own pastry for this, and the recipe is versatile, use any mushrooms you have at hand, tweak by adding wine instead of verjuice, choose different herbs if you like such as parsley or chervil.
And get creative with your top - there are no rules and it’s a good excuse for a little play.

Ingredients

For the pie filling:

850g mixed mushrooms
4 eschalots/french shallots or 1 large brown onion - finely chopped.
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2-3 tablespoons verjuice
500ml beef or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons cornflour
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon truffle oil
black pepper
salt to taste
200g cooked, peeled chestnuts (I used “cheznuts’ vacuum sealed australian chestnuts)

Rough Puff pastry:

500g unsalted butter - cold
500g plain flour
275ml iced water
1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg- beaten, to glaze the pie.

Note - this is probably more pasty than you will need for the pie, but gives you extra pastry to play with for decorations, and then some to chill or freeze and use at a later date. I figure if you are going to the trouble to make pastry, it’s worth making a decent amount.

If you are using bought pastry, I would purchase two packets of butter puff.

To prepare the filling:

Wash the mushrooms and drain.

I used button, field, mixed oyster, pine, shimeji and shitake varieties but you can just use one or several types depending on availability and preference.

Cut the larger mushrooms into slices, halves or quarters, and tear apart the oyster varieties so that the pieces or relatively uniform.

In a deep frypan, melt the butter until sizzling.

Add the chopped onion or shallot and sauté until nicely caramelised. This will add a delicious flavour to the filling.

Add the mushrooms and chopped thyme and sauté until softened.

Pour in the stock, verjuice and add ground pepper. Simmer until the mushrooms are cooked and the onions are nice and tender.

Remove from heat. Make a slurry out of the cornflour and water. Add enough to the mixture to make a thickened sauce around the mushrooms. Bring back to boil for one minute then season to taste with salt and pepper, followed by a generous splash of truffle oil.

Add the cooked chestnuts and stir.

Allow the filling to chill completely in the fridge - a cold mixture prevents the pastry from becoming overly soft when forming the pie.

For the rough puff pastry:

Mix together the salt, water and lemon juice or vinegar.

Cut the butter into 1 cm cubes.

Tip the flour onto a cool bench. Place the cubed butter on top of the flour and toss it through with your fingers, then take a couple of bench scrapers and chop the butter into the flour until it is in small pea sized pieces.

Move the flour/butter mixture into a large wide bowl, make a well in the middle and pour in the water mixture. Use a spoon to mix it all together until you have a cohesive ball, trying not to work the butter in too much.

Empty onto a lightly floured bench and pat everything together into a flat circle, then roll out into a large (20 by 60cm approx) rectangle. Brush off any excess flour.

Fold the two short ends toward the middle, then fold again so you have four layers.

Wrap in glad wrap, then chill for 30 minutes.

With the short end facing you and the seam to the right, roll the pastry out again into a large rectangle. I like to use the bench scraper to tap any uneven edges back into shape. Keep the bench floured beneath by lifting and dusting when the dough starts to grab onto the bench.

Fold again into four and chill for another 20 minutes.

Repeat the process once more.

Keep the pastry wrapped and chilled in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

To assemble the pie:

Halve the chilled pastry.

Roll out one half to line a pie tin, leaving the dough hanging over the edge slightly. Aim for the thickness of around 4mm

Keep any off cuts by laying them on top of each other. This way they can be rolled out again without losing the pastry layers. Wrap and chill.

Fill the pie with the cold mushroom and chestnut mixture.

Roll the other half of the pastry to make a round lid, slightly larger than the pie tin diameter.

Again save any extra pastry by layering it together.

Brush the edges of the pastry base with egg and top the pie with the lid. Press around the perimeter of the pie to seal everything together.

Trim to neaten.

Cut a cross in the middle of the lid to vent any steam.

Use pastry scraps to form leaves, chestnuts and decorative strips or plaits for the lid, securing them with a little extra egg wash.

Brush the entire lid with the beaten egg.
Chill the pie for 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Turn it down when you are ready to put the pie in the oven.

Bake at 180 deg C - fan forced, for around 30-45 minutes until crisp and golden. If the top browns too quickly, turn the oven down to 160- 170 deg C to complete cooking.

Serve hot.