More 3 Photos

Terri's Tourtiers (French-Canadian Santa Pies) Recipe

Recipe by: mauigirl

"This recipe is a Christmas tradition first given to me by my French-Canadian sister-in-law in the form of a lovely homemade pie. Her family has made dozens of these to share every year with friends and family during the holiday season for generations. In fact, earlier generations stored their newly made pies in the snow banks outside their Quebec homes for keeping through the winter. The tradition of gathering the family to share the assembly of dozens of pies still thrives to this day. Her little grandson could not pronounce the name so he renamed them Santa pies, and the tradition continues. Serve with cornichons or gherkins and grainy Dijon mustard."

Directions
Ingredients
Nutrition

Directions

Prep1 h
Cook1 h 20 m
Ready In3 h 20 m

1Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan; crumble pork into the boiling water. Reduce heat and simmer until pork is no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain water into a large bowl and transfer pork to a separate bowl; refrigerate pork. Refrigerate broth until fat separates from water, at least 1 hour.
2Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3Place pork in a large skillet; add onions and salt. Cook and stir pork mixture over medium heat until onion is soft and translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.
4Skim and discard the fat from the broth. Pour the remaining broth over the pork-onion mixture; stir in bread crumbs and allspice until well mixed. Add more bread crumbs if mixture is runny. Remove skillet from heat.
5Press 5 pie crusts into five 9-inch pie dishes. Divide ground pork mixture among the 5 prepared pie crusts. Place 1 pie crust over each pie, crimping edges together to seal. Cut slits into the top crust of each pie for ventilation.
6Bake in the preheated oven until pies are golden brown, about 1 hour.

Footnotes

Cook's Notes:
Ask your butcher to grind a nice, lean pork roast to make assembly even easier.
The meat mixture should not be runny and should be rather thick so it holds up firmly when you slice the pie into wedges.
Wrap the extra pies in aluminum foil and freeze for gifts or future use. To cook the frozen pies, preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Unwrap bake frozen pie until cooked through, about 1 hour.

Ingredients