Baking warm cheese and onion pasties for lunchboxes

Why a pasty belongs in the lunchbox

There is a particular pleasure in opening a lunchbox and finding something made by your own hands that morning: a golden crimped parcel with a bit of weight to it, still faintly warm from the oven. A cheese and onion pasty travels beautifully, eats perfectly well cold, and is transformed by twenty seconds in a microwave or a low oven. It costs pennies each, freezes without complaint, and suits everyone from a schoolchild to a walker with a flask of tea.

This is not a Cornish pasty and makes no claims to be one. It is a shortcrust turnover with a sharp, savoury filling: mature cheddar, slowly softened onion and diced potato, bound just enough to hold together. Bake a dozen on a Sunday and the working week is covered.

The filling: get this right and the rest follows

Filling first, always, so it has time to cool completely before it meets the pastry. Warm filling melts the butter in the dough and you will end up with leaking pasties and a burnt tray.

• Potatoes — 400g, peeled and cut into 1cm dice. A waxy variety such as Charlotte holds its shape; a floury one gives a softer, more comforting filling. Both work.
• Onion — one large, finely chopped, cooked low and slow in a knob of butter for 15 minutes until sweet and translucent but not coloured.
• Cheddar — 250g of the sharpest you can justify, coarsely grated. Mild cheddar disappears into the potato and leaves the whole thing tasting flat.
• Seasoning — a heaped teaspoon of English mustard powder, plenty of black pepper, a modest pinch of salt, and a few sprigs of thyme if you have them.

Boil the diced potato in salted water for five minutes only, then drain and leave to steam dry. Combine with the cooled onion, cheese and seasoning. The mixture should be loose and crumbly, not wet. If it feels damp, the pasties will be soggy underneath; add a tablespoon of fine oatmeal or dried breadcrumb to soak it up.

A shortcrust worth folding

The reliable ratio is two parts flour to one part fat by weight, with a little water to bring it together. Half butter for flavour, half lard for shortness, gives the classic flaky bite that snaps rather than crumbles.

• 300g plain flour, or 200g plain plus 100g stoneground wholemeal
• 150g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 50g lard or vegetable shortening, cubed
• 60–80ml iced water
• A good pinch of salt

This is where heritage grains earn their keep. Older wheats — Emmer, Einkorn, and the traditional English landraces now being grown again on small arable farms — bring a nutty, faintly sweet depth that modern strong flour simply does not have. They are lower in gluten and thirstier, so hold back some water and add it a spoonful at a time until the dough just comes together. Handle it gently and rest it wrapped in the fridge for half an hour before rolling.

Shaping, filling and crimping

Roll the rested pastry to about 3mm on a lightly floured surface and cut 15cm circles — a saucer makes a decent template. Each circle takes roughly three tablespoons of filling, piled slightly off-centre. Brush the rim with beaten egg, fold the pastry over, and press the edges together firmly with your fingertips before crimping. A proper crimp, worked along the edge with a knuckle and thumb, is not decoration: it seals the pasty and gives that thick, slightly chewy ridge everyone fights over.

Cut two or three small slits in the top of each pasty and chill them for 15 minutes before baking. Cold pastry holds its shape and puffs more evenly.

Bake, cool, pack

Bake at 200°C (180°C fan, gas mark 6) for 25–30 minutes, until deep golden and audibly crisp when you tap the base. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before boxing them; trapping steam against the crust is what turns a lovely pasty into a soft, sad one.

They keep in the fridge for three days, or freeze beautifully once baked — open-freeze on a tray, then bag them up. Reheat from frozen at 180°C for 20 minutes, or from chilled for 8–10. For lunchboxes, warm them in the morning, wrap in foil or a cloth, and they will still be pleasantly warm come midday.

Small tweaks worth making

Swap half the onion for a softened leek, or add a pinch of cayenne and a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard to the cheese. Replacing 50g of cheddar with Red Leicester gives a warmer colour. If you are baking with heritage flour, expect to add a little extra water to the pastry and perhaps a spoonful of cream to the filling, as these grains drink more than modern varieties.

Whatever you do, make more than you need. The first pasty, eaten standing at the kitchen counter while the rest cool, is the best one of the batch.