Chocolate Ganache Hand Held Pies

Serves: 20 Cooking time: 15 minutes

There was a spell in most people’s teens where we all ate far more Pop-Tarts than we should have done. Now a little older and wiser, Stacey Hart (semi-finalist on the Great British Bake Off) realised that they’re not the healthiest snacks going, so wanted to re-create something that gave the same taste satisfaction, but without all the sugar.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

  • 170g plain flour
  • 90g plain wholemeal flour
  • 200g unsalted butter cold, diced
  • 2 tbsps Total Sweet Xylitol
  • 1 large egg

For the filling:

  • 150g dark chocolate - finely chopped
  • 150ml double cream
  • 1 tbsp Total Sweet Xylitol
  • (an optional tablespoon of rum or Frangelico)

For the drizzle:

  • 3 tablespoons dark chocolate drops, or around 40g dark chocolate finely chopped
  • A tiny amount of coconut oil
  • Chopped roasted hazelnuts (about 50g in total)

Method:

For the pastry:

  1. In a food processor (or by hand with a feathery light touch) pulse together the flour, xylitol and diced butter until breadcrumb consistency
  2. Add the egg and pulse just until it comes together to form a dough
  3. On a floured board cut the dough in half and shape each half into a disk
  4. Wrap and refrigerate for 45 mins to allow the dough to rest and firm up

For the ganache:

  1. Put chocolate into a heat-resistant bowl
  2. Heat up the double cream and xylitol, stirring, until just about to boil
  3. Pour over the chocolate and wait for 30 seconds
  4. Whisk until smooth
  5. Add the rum/Frangelico if you fancy
  6. Leave to cool and then cover and refrigerate until you want to use it - ideally don't leave the ganache to totally harden as it makes it hard to scoop out for the filling

To construct:

  1. Oven on 200oC/180oC fan
  2. Take one half of the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out to around the thickness of a £1 coin
  3. Use a cutter of your choice to make pastry shapes (I use a 9cm round cookie cutter but you can go wild!)
  4. Brush beaten egg carefully all over half of the circles then a good size dollop of ganache into the middle of those
  5. Take the other circles and place one on top of each ganache circle
  6. Gently push down the edges to seal (they will resemble flying saucers!)
  7. Repeat with the other half of the pastry
  8. Place on a baking tray and refrigerate for 30 mins before baking for 12-15 mins
  9. When lovely and golden brown, take out from the oven and place on a cooking rack or eat them straight away (ensuring they’re not too hot to burn) with cream or ice cream - yum

OR

  1. Melt your chocolate for the drizzle and add a tiny bit of coconut oil (or sunflower if you don't have it) and mix until smooth.
  2. Drizzle over the pies and top with chopped hazelnuts
  3. You can eat these hot or cold
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