Try these unique pies to add pizzazz to your bakery lineup

Walk down the streets of any retail or industrial district in Australia and you’ll likely see a bakery. The Australian government reports that the baking industry employs over 24,950 people across the nation, making any of these souls who are within close proximity to your own business competitors.

Even after you have installed a new range of quality commercial baking equipment in your store, you may still need to provide customers with something new, interesting and unique if you want to convince them that you’re a better option than Joe Bloggs up the street.

With that in mind, here are two interesting pie ideas to add to your daily lineup.

Classic Scottish Scotch pie

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are upward of 1.7 million Scottish people – be they first, second or third generation – living in Australia. This means there’s a pretty big market for classic Highland food.

The Scotch Pie has a circular, hot water crust cup surrounding a delicious, though somewhat fatty, mutton filling. Utilising your new convection oven from Turbofan, you can bake these beauties in bulk, safe in the knowledge that you’ll get an even heat every time.

The crust combines a boiling water mixture of salt and lard with plain flour, which is then moulded around cups or jars to give it a straight, circular edge. As for the meat, get your hands on fresh mutton mince and combine with mace and nutmeg – the classic spices. Season with salt and pepper and it’s good to go.

Once you’ve placed a scoop of mince in each pastry cup, bake for around 40 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. The Scots will thank you!

Beef, cheddar, Guinness and thyme

Take Pure Pie Melbourne’s example and get creative with both beer and beef. This gorgeous pastry masterpiece was created by an ex-pat Kiwi for his fellows, as steak and cheese is a popular filling across the ditch.

The bakers at Pure Pie cook their beef bone stock with Guinness for 48 hours, which they then combine with sour cream pastry for a fluffy finish. Inspire your own pie experimentation by seeing which of your favourite local brews work with beef. Could you team up with a local microbrewery to create the ultimate promotional combo? Different cheeses also work wonders with the mixture, such as cheddar, brie, parmesan or even blue.