Cooking with your family is the perfect way to pass the time and teach your kids some practical skills along the way. These Millennium Falcon shaped meat pies from Coffee and Crumpets are a surefire crowd-pleaser. They would also be the perfect complement to an earlier-than-expected Rise of Skywalker movie night!
The recipe is not necessarily for kitchen novices, but Coffee and Crumpets provides easy-to-follow instructions and plenty of notes. We’re willing to bet Han and Leia would love to whip-up a batch of these in her Millennium Falcon kitchenette.
INGREDIENTS
- Pastry
- 2 ¼ cups/330g all purpose/plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons/170g butter, cold and cubed
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 5-6 tablespoons cold water
- Curried Chicken and Potato Filling
- 2 cups leftover cooked chicken, small dice
- 2 potatoes, medium gold potatoes, boiled and mashed
- 3 teaspoon garam masala mix or curry mix
- ½ teaspoon ginger. minced
- ½ teaspoon garlic.minced
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
Pastry –
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour and salt and pulse to mix.
- Add the butter cubes.
- Run the processor and break up the butter to the size of peas.
- Add 3 tablespoons water and vinegar and process until dough starts to hold together.
- Check to see if the dough holds when pinched together.
- Add more water if it doesn’t hold.
- Amount of water used does depend on the dryness if the flour and even the humidity in the air.
- Roll the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Filling –
- Place the cooked chicken, boiled, mashed potatoes, curry mix powder, garlic, ginger and the cilantro in a bowl and mix together.
- Add salt to taste.
- Keep aside until it’s time to roll the pastry.
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C
- Once dough is chilled, time to cut out the shapes.
To cut the Millennium Falcon and Tie Fighter shapes, the author advises you “can make paper templates or use the Star Wars sandwich cutters that I used.” To make your own template, use a a sausage or biscuit cutter to create a small disc of your dough.
If you have access to the now-unavailable Williams-Sonoma sandwich cutters, you can expect to get 20-24 shapes after re-rolling the dough twice. This will make 10-12 Star Wars inspried meat pies.
Filling Cont. –
- Roll out the dough to about ⅛-¼ inch.
- Once all the cutouts are done, it’s time to fill.
- Place about a teaspoon or two on pastry cut out.
- Place the top cut out over the filling.
- Press around gently but firmly to seal.
- Add a dab of water around the edges if you have trouble sealing.
- Use a fork to seal the tartlet.
- Repeat with the other cutouts.
- Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the fridge to chill a few minutes.
- Allow to chill about 10-15 minutes.
- Brush the tops with an egg yolk or heavy cream.
- Place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until nice and golden brown on top.
- Allow to cool slightly on a rack.
Coffee and Crumpets notes that “The filling makes a double batch. Either halve it to make 12 meat pies or make another batch of pastry dough and make extra. They will freeze nicely.”
We can’t wait to make this out of the world dinner (even though the meat pies are almost too cute to eat!)