Make This Holiday Showstopper: Pâte En Croute

Transform your holiday table into a feast fit for royalty with this traditional French delicacy! Pâte en Croute, a savory meat pie encased in buttery pastry, is as much a visual delight as it is a flavorful masterpiece. This classic dish combines ground pork, pork belly, and morel mushrooms, all wrapped in golden pastry and topped with a shimmering beef jelly glaze. Perfect for Christmas or any festive gathering, this dish will have everyone reaching for seconds.

Ready to impress your guests? Follow this recipe, courtesy of Mon Paris Patisserie chef/owner Elena Krasnova, for a true culinary triumph. —Vita Daily

Pâte en Croute: French traditional Christmas meat pie

• 550 gr ground pork
• 400 gr pork belly cut in small pieces
• 3 eggs
• 500gr of short crust or puffed pastry
• 100gr whipping cream
• 30 gr morel mushrooms
• 50 gr of water
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 550 gr jelly (90 gr of gelatine plus 460 gr of beef stock)

This recipe is for one pâte about 12” X 5”

Brush the rectangular metal mould with melted butter and line with the crust.

To prepare the filling first put the dry mushrooms in the hot water to rehydrate them for about 5 minutes. Drain and cook the mushrooms in cream for about 5 minutes. Cut the mushrooms in medium pieces.

Mix meet and all ingredients except jelly together. Massage well with your hands the mix for 3-4 minutes. Put the mix in the mold lined with pastry. Press well. Cut the top from the pastry and line on top of the meet. Make sure to secure all end well together. Make 2 small holes in each end of the pie. Each whole should go through the pastry to the meat so you could  install small metallic “chimney” in the whole. The chimney will allow for the hot air to evaporate while pie will be cooking without braking the pie in other places. You can make chimneys from the foil or use metallic piping tips.

Put the pie in the cold oven. Put the oven at 320F and cook for 1 hour 20 min.

Remove from oven and leave for at least 10 hours to cool down completely.

Prepare the jelly by tempering gelatine in the hot beef stock until fully dissolved. When your pie is cold and removed from the mold slowly poor the jelly through the wholes left from the chimneys.

Let set for 1 hour in a fridge.