This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors.

If you are using ad-blocking software, please disable it and reload the page.

Lottie Bedlow, a fan-favorite contestant on The Great British Baking Show, couldn’t pick between two meals that she loves to eat: Cornish pasties and toad-in-the-hole (sausages in a Yorkshire pudding batter often eaten with onion gravy and vegetables)—so she created a mashup of both.  

"You might have seen me make these before on The Great British Baking Show, but I haven't been able to share the recipe until now. So, this is the moment I'm sure you've all been waiting for. I wanted to fill a pasty with the feeling of a delicious, warm, cozy dinner. Complete with mashed potatoes and gravy." —Lottie 

Pro Tip from Lottie: If you are struggling to get the potatoes to mash smoothly, use an electric hand mixer to whip it up. Don't overdo it, though, or the mash will turn watery.  

For more popular sausage recipes, check out Rach's Sausages and Beans with Greens and Sausage-Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

  • 8 sausages
  • 2 sheets of store-bought puff pastry
  • 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
For the Red Onion Gravy:
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 or 3 red onions depending on size, halved and thinly sliced
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon dried sage
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed in a mortar and pestle or on a cutting board using something weighty
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup red wine
  • 1 cup beef stock
For the Mashed Potatoes:
  • 2 large potatoes, such as Yukon gold, peeled and cut into ½ inch slices
  • A knob of unsalted butter
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

Yield

Serves: Makes up to 8 pasties, depending on the size of the sausages and the thickness of the dough

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking pan with foil. 

Put the sausages onto the lined pan and roast for 35 minutes, turning occasionally. 

Meanwhile, make the red onion gravy. Melt the butter in a large skillet, add the onions with a large pinch of salt, and fry over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and fry for another 5 minutes. Next, add the sage, mustard, fennel seeds, and flour and fry for another couple of minutes, then stir in the wine and stock. Bring to a simmer and reduce by one-quarter, then season with salt and pepper. Let cool. 

White your gravy is cooking, make the mashed potatoes.  

For the mashed potatoes, cook the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water for 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain in a colander and return to the pan. Add a knob of butter (I don't want any questions about how big a "knob" is; it is as big as you want it to be) and mash until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper and a grating of nutmeg, if you like. Let cool and then transfer to a large pastry bag. 

Once the sausages are done, remove from the oven and let cool. Reduce the oven to 400°F. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Unroll the pastry on your work surface and cut around a small plate to cut out 3 or 4 circles from each sheet. Put the pastry circles into the fridge to keep chilled. 

Take one pastry circle out of the fridge and place it on the lined cookie sheet. Place some of the onion gravy in the center of the circle, top with a sausage, and pipe some mashed potatoes across the top. The quantities here are up to you. The fuller the pasties are, the harder they will be to seal, but too little mixture and you'll be serving plain pastry. 

Once filled, brush one-half of the pastry circle rim with egg wash and fold the pastry in half, sealing as you go. Here you can crimp however you like, as long as it is tightly sealing the filling inside. I like to have 3 or 4 pasties in the oven at once, depending on their size, so once crimped, I put each pastry in the fridge until I have enough to put a batch in the oven. 

Brush the pasties all over with egg wash. Bake for 35 minutes or until puffed up and golden brown. 

Eat immediately.

Excerpted from Baking Imperfect by Lottie Bedlow. Copyright © 2022 by Lottie Bedlow. Used with permission by Thunder Bay Press. All rights reserved.