Roasted Carrot, Leek, and Goat Cheese Hand Pies

I loved these, and together with the tomato soup recipe in the book and a glass of Gaspereau Muscat,and a bit of St Andre's Triple Cream cheese with a slice of pine nut tart for dessert and I thought life doesn't taste much better. It took a fair bit of work though. I used the full amount of salt (kosher) and olives and it was good. I think the type of goat cheese and olives you use could change the amount required so better to taste first. I would definitely serve the above menu for a special luncheon and would be proud-and rested-because I could do it all ahead.

Overall, I thought these were very good: the sweetness of the vegetables was balanced by the briny olives and tangy goat cheese and all of this goodness was encased in a nutty-flavoured crisp pastry.

A great deal of thought seemed to have gone into the details of this recipe to ensure that both filling and pastry were well-suited to eating out of hand. A portion of the roasted carrots was puréed, acting as a glue to hold the filling ingredients together. The whole wheat pastry, which was relatively low in fat, baked up buttery crisp and flaky but was also quite sturdy.

I would recommend holding back on the salt in the filling and adding most of it to taste only after adding the olives (I used far less than 1 tbsp). The filling was very strongly flavoured so it wasn’t for everyone and though I liked it, I would cut back on the olives. I made the filling the night before and the pastry several days earlier so all I had to do was form and bake the pies today, in honour of Pi day.

These were good eaten warm or at room temperature.