These pasties make the perfect lunch. This recipe is enough to make 3 Cornish pasties and 3 cheese and onion pasties, but the recipes are easily scaled up and down.

Method

First make the pastry. Cut your butter and lard into cubes and put into a bowl with your flour and salt. Rub the mixture between your fingers until the fats are combined and it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add in 3/4 of the water and begin to knead with your hands until the dough is soft and elastic. This will take a bit longer than normal pastry, and you will need to work it a bit to build up the gluten to give it strength. Use some more of the water if it seems dry.
Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge for 3 hours. This seems like a long time, but this is strong pastry and it needs the extra time to chill or it will be very difficult to roll out.
For the Cornish pasty al you need to do is combine everything in a bowl and season with a very generous amount of salt and pepper. The potatoes and beef can really take a lot of seasoning here so don’t be skimpy. No need to cook, they will have plenty of time for that as the pasty bakes.
For the cheese and onion pasty, fry the sliced onions gently for about 5 minutes until they are softened. Combine these with the cheese, potatoes, mustard and plenty of salt and pepper and let it all cool.
Once your pastry has chilled pre-heat your oven to 165ºC.
Roll out the pastry on a floured worktop until it is about the thickness of a pound coin. You might find it easier to divide the pastry into 2 to do this.
Use a side plate to cut a 20cm circle of pastry for each of your pasties. Re-roll the pastry if you need to, and if you are finding it is springing back and not rolling well - put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes and it should be fine.
Add a generous amount of Cornish pasty or cheese and onion mixture into the centre of each circle and use some water to wet the sides to allow it to stick together.
You can then either fold the pastry over to form a half circle and crimp the seam as a traditional Cornish pasty shape, or bring the sides up and seal over the top, crimping as you go.
Once shaped, place onto an oven tray lined with baking parchment. Whisk an egg in a small bowl and brush each pasty with egg wash before putting into the oven for 50-55 minutes.
Enjoy hot, fresh from the oven.

Ingredients

Pastry

500g strong white bread flour
125g lard (cold from the fridge)
120g butter (cold from the fridge)
1 teaspoon salt
175 fridge cold water
1 egg

Cornish pasty filling

200g beef skirt - chopped into small dices
150g potatoes - peeled and chopped into small dice
75g swede - peels and chopped into small dice
1/2 onion - finely chopped
salt and pepper

Cheese and onion filling

2 small onions, finely sliced
200g strong cheddar cheese - grated
200g potatoes - peeled and chopped into small dice
2 teaspoon english mustard
salt and pepper

Top Tips

If you want to make a vegetarian version of the cheese and onion pasty, you can swap out the butter and lard in the recipe with an equal quantity of vegetarian suet, nothing else changes.

Beef skirt can sometimes be tricky to get hold of. A good substitute is brisket, just make sure you cut off any fat first.

The pasties will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, or you can freeze them for up to a month.