Mini Vegetarian Pot-pies

Directions

1. Crust
2. Make the crust. Pulse all-purpose flour and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining.
3. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; drizzle with ¼ cup ice water. Mix with a fork, adding more ice water by the tablespoonful if needed, just until the dough comes together; lightly knead. Pat into a disk and wrap in plastic. Chill 1 hour.

1. Filling
2. Preheat oven to 400°F
3. Make the filling. Cut the onion, butternut squash, rutabaga, and carrot into a small dice. You’ll want 4 cups total of vegetables. Place the vegetables in a cast iron skillet or oven proof sauté pan, toss with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes until the squash is very soft, and the carrots and rutabaga are browning at the edges.
4. While the squash is baking, roll out the bottom crusts. Grease a 12 – muffin tin with butter. Separate the dough into 1/3 and 2/3 chunks. Wrap the smaller piece in plastic and return it to the refrigerator. Roll the dough out very thin – 1/4 inch. Use a 4 1/2″ round cutter if you have it, or the top of a container to cut out circles of dough. When you place them in the pan you should have about a 1/2 inch left around the top. If you need to, ball up the scraps and re-roll them so you have enough circles. Refrigerate the bottom crusts while you finish making the filling.
5. Finish the filling. Transfer the filling to the stove top and turn the heat to medium low. (Be careful of the hot pan!). Push the vegetables to the side and melt the butter in the center of the pan. Stir to coat the vegetables, then sprinkle the flour over the top and stir. The vegetables will start to get pasty. Add the stock 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. The squash will soften and mix with the liquid forming a thick sauce. Stir in the garlic, thyme, brussels sprouts, and chickpeas. Let simmer for a few minutes so the Brussels sprouts start to cook (they’ll finish cooking in the oven). Turn off the heat, add more stock if necessary, taste and season with salt and pepper. Let cool a bit before assembling the pies.
6. Assemble the pies. Roll the remaining crust out into 1/4 inch sheet. Remove the prepped bottom crusts from the refrigerator. Scoop about 1/4 cup filling into a crust, then top with a small circle of dough (I used an 8 oz jam jar to make these) with a vent hole already cut out. Crimp the edges of the bottom crust around the top. Repeat until all of the pies are made.
7. Whisk the egg yolk and milk together in a small bowl and brush the tops of pies with the mixture.
8. Bake at 400°F for 30 – 35 minutes until the tops are golden. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm. Store leftovers in a container in the refrigerator and reheat in the oven.
9. *feel free to change the root vegetables (parsnips, potatoes, celeriac, etc), but keep the squash, it thickens the sauce.