A Hearty Pie

Actually, calling this pie hearty is slightly ironic because it is probably very bad for the heart, healthwise. Very bad because the recipe calls for a flour : butter ratio of 1.25 : 1, or if you prefer percentages-  butter required = 80% of flour required. And we haven't even started on the sour cream. So I reduced the butter to my butter percentage threshold: half butter to flour.

But enough about pastry. The real cracker here is the mushroom and chicken filling. The recipe by Maggie Beer called for pheasant, which costs $35/kg. Chicken drumsticks, on the other hand, are $6.90/kg. So I guess you know which bird won.

I was going for a simple pie, with as little ingredients as possible, since I was mostly excited about testing the sour cream pastry. So I did away with the walnuts and berries, and used the meat of 8 chicken drumsticks. I baked it in an oven dish since I don't have a metal pie pan, which stretched the cooking time to 1 hr.

Would I bake this pie again? Oh yes! With more mushrooms! And I'll chop them more finely and cook them longer so the filling won't be so runny. And yes, more butter please. So it'll be even heartier.