This cheese pasty is big enough to feed four people, a real winter warmer but would be good cold for a picnic. The addition of apple makes it better than anything like this available in the shops, and of course you know exactly what is in it!
Preheat oven to 200 C / 425F / Gas Mark 7

200g/ 8 oz potatoes, peeled and cut into half inch slices
1 medium sized onion
1 eating apple, peeled and cored
4 oz cheddar cheese or something similar (grated)
one packet of frozen puff pastry
1 beaten egg (optional)
salt and pepper (optional)

1. Put the sliced potatoes into a small pan of salted water and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes until just tender. Drain and leave to cool.

2. Thinly slice the apple and onion (I used a mandolin to do this)
Put them into a large bowl with the grated cheese and the cooled potato. Season with pepper and mix together until well combined. I dodged the salt.

3. Divide the pastry in half with one piece slightly larger. Roll out on a floured surface. The smaller piece should measure around 30cm x 21 cm / 12 inches x 8 inches. Place it on a lightly greased baking sheet.

4. Pile the cheese, potato, apple, onion mixture onto the rolled out pastry and level leaving a one inch border around the edge. Brush the border with the beaten egg or water.

5. Roll out the remaining pastry so that it will cover the mixture without stretching. Seal the edges by pressing with a fork. Cut some horizontal slashes across the top and brush the pastry with more beaten egg if desired.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 220 c / 425 F / gas mark 7

After 15 minutes lower the temperature to 200 c/ 400 F/ gas mark 6 and cook for another 10 or 15 minutes until golden and well risen.

Serve with veggies of your choice.

This is the first time I’ve tried this recipe and next time I’m going to cook the onion a bit before adding to the mixture as although I cut it as thin as possible on a mandolin it was still too firm for my liking. Otherwise the pasty is delicious. A quarter of it is one good serving.