Valentine’s Special: Spiced Wine – Strawberry Skillet Pie for 2

Spiced wine – Strawberry Skillet Pie for 2 in our case 2 and a half! well of course he did not eat the filling! but he thoroughly enjoyed pulling out those flakey pastry hearts and munching on them!

I always have these sauces/ filling left in the fridge from the earlier bakes! I found this spiced wine syrup lingering in there for a few days now! What better way to pair spiced red wine sauce than with strawberry!

Ingredients:

Spiced Wine Syrup:

• Red Wine – 125ml
• Water – 125ml
• Sugar – 100gm
• Cinnamon – 1 stick
• Star Anise – 2-3
• Cloves – 2-3

Rye Pastry Crust: (makes one 6 inch skillet size)

• All purpose flour – 100gm
• Rye flour – 50gm
• Sugar – 2 tablespoons
• Butter (chilled and cubed) – 100gm
• Egg yolk – 1
• Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 tablespoon
• Cold Water – 1 tablespoon
• Salt – pinch
• Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Strawberry Wine Filling:

• Strawberries (cleaned and chopped) – 200gm
• Spiced wine syrup – 2-3 tablespoons
• Sugar – 2 tablespoons
• Cornflour – 1 teaspoon

Method

Spiced Wine Syrup:

• In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, add all the ingredients and cook it on simmer. Cook for 15- 20 minutes. Until it becomes half or less and thick and syrupy.

Rye Pastry Crust: (makes one 6 inch skillet size):

• In a small bowl, add the flour, rye flour, sugar and salt. Mix thoroughly.
• Add the chilled and cubed butter. Rub the butter into the flour mixture with the tip of your fingers, until it resembles wet sand.
• Make a well in the middle and add the egg yolk, apple cider vinegar. Mix it all together. (the dough starts to get slightly more wet)
• Sprinkle the water and mix thoroughly, until you can make a ball of dough wit it.
• Divide the dough into two and wrap it with cling wrap and Chill for 15 minutes.

Strawberry Wine Filling

• In a bowl, add the chopped strawberries, cornflour, sugar and 2-3 tablespoons (or more) of the spiced wine syrup.
• Chill it in the refrigerator until you bake.

Assembling the Pie:

• After chilling the pie dough, roll out one of them on a well floured surface.
• Roll it out into a size bigger than the skillet.
• Place it in the skillet, chill until you roll the other part.
• Roll out the second ball of dough and using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out hearts.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
• Take the chilled skillet out, add the filling and cover the skillet with heart cut out dough.
• Crimp the edges of the dough on the skillet.
• Give a coat egg wash on the pie using the whisked egg and attach the left over heart cut outs on the edges to give it a border.
• Give a second coat of egg wash and sprinkle sugar all over to give a nice crunch and the browning!!
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
• Enjoy with a dollop of cream and sprinkle of the wine sauce!

Happy Valentine’s day you guys!

Happy Baking

xx