Pies, Puddings and Pottages

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.

Grease the baking sheets with lard.

Sift together the flour and salt into the large mixing bowl.

Rub the lard and butter into the flour until you have a fine breadcrumb consistency.

Add the currants and sugar and stir in to incorporate the fruit evenly into the mixture.

Add the milk a bit at a time to make a soft dough. You may not need all of the milk.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly.

Form a rough slab and roll it out to form a rectangle, about 30 x 12cm.

Flake 20g butter and 20g of lard over the bottom two-thirds of the dough.

Fold the un-fatty top third down onto the fatty middle third, then fold the fatty bottom third up.

Rotate 90 degrees then roll out again to about the same size and repeat the process with another 40g of fat.

Give it one final fold in the same way with the last 40g of fat.

Cover the dough with clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.

Roll out the dough to about 6mm thick.

Cut out 7cm rounds with a non-fluted pastry cutter. If you use the remaining pastry scraps to make more ‘heavies’ you will lose the lamination, but they will taste as good.

Place on baking sheets and brush with the beaten egg.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.