terri's tourtiers (french-canadian santa pies)

Ingredients

• Servings: 30
• 5 cups water
• 5 pounds lean ground lamb
• 3 onions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 1/2 cups ground dry bread crumbs, or more as needed
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 5 pastries for double-crust pies

Recipe

Cook Time: 1 hr 20 mins

Ready Time: 3 hrs 20 mins


• bring water to a boil in a large saucepan; crumble lamb into the boiling water. reduce heat and simmer until lamb is no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. drain water into a large bowl and transfer lamb to a separate bowl; refrigerate lamb. refrigerate broth until fat separates from water, at least 1 hour.
• preheat oven to 350 degrees f (175 degrees c).
• place lamb in a large skillet; add onions and salt. cook and stir lamb mixture over medium heat until onion is soft and translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.
• skim and discard the fat from the broth. pour the remaining broth over the lamb-onion mixture; stir in bread crumbs and allspice until well mixed. add more bread crumbs if mixture is runny. remove skillet from heat.
• press 5 pie crusts into five 9-inch pie dishes. divide ground lamb 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.
• bake in the preheated oven until pies are golden brown, about 1 hour.