Breville Antony's Gourmet Pie Maker November 2010

Gourmet Pie Maker reviewed

Let’s start with the good points; excluding preparation time, and assuming you have both pastry and lots of cooked leftovers in the fridge, it’s possible to make a batch of four pies in around 10 minutes.

And it’s simple to operate, much like a sandwich maker, but with four circular holes where the pies go.

Trial and error

Getting the right pastry thickness is a trial-and-error process as the instructions lack any indication of how thick it should be. If it’s rolled too thick, we found the pastry won’t be cooked the whole way through.

Two pie tools are supplied; one for cutting out the pie base and top, and one to push the pastry into the hot pie maker - but they’re quite slippery to use, especially when sealing the pie lid onto the filled base.

A palette knife is handy to help remove the lid from the top of the pie if it sticks.

Getting the timing right

There’s no timer, so having one nearby is handy, otherwise the pie maker carries on cooking until turned off at the plug.

With no ‘on’ switch, you just plug in and go. It doesn’t take long to warm up; indicator lights show when it’s on (red) and warming up (green). When the green light goes out, it’s ready to use.

Our pies didn’t stick to the lid at any point, but we did notice those made on the first run are cooked better than subsequent batches.

Pies made on the second run weren’t quite cooked after 10 minutes, but leaving them for a few more minutes finishes them off nicely.

We made the shortcrust pastry, enough for around five pies, and three different recipes: roast chicken and pesto; turkey, leek and bacon and goats cheese and caramelised onion. The pie moulds allow about two tablespoons of filling to be put into each pie.

Proof is in the pie

The finished pies are fairly small, so serious pie fans may be disappointed by their snack size, but this isn’t such a bad thing when you consider the calorific nature of such treats.

Opening the pie maker reveals neat, tidy and fairly well browned pies, on both top and bottom – much better than we’d anticipated.

Some may find the pastry on the hard side; it’s not soft at all, but ready-made pastry can be used, too, although we didn’t try this out.

Breville Gourmet Pie Maker: our verdict

Is this going to revolutionise kitchen cooking? We doubt it, and we’re struggling to think why you wouldn’t just use an oven, considering the preparation involved.

However, for those less confident in the kitchen, it could appeal as a convenient way to use up leftovers that otherwise might be heading for the bin.

It costs around £45 and is widely available now.

Pros: A great way to use up leftovers

Cons: We found results can be inconsistent, the tools supplied are slippery to use