Judges of prestigious global awards loved it for its look and flavour
Dan’s Pies of Pocklington has done it again. Already the upper crust as far as experts at the British Pie Awards were concerned, earlier this year, a particular pie made by Dan Leaver tempted the eye – and palate – of judges at the recent Great Taste awards.
Dan’s steak and Wetherby Brew ale pie received a one-star award from the trusted scheme, run by the Guild of Fine Food and considered the “Oscars” of the food industry. Dan was thrilled to have one of the two pie flavours he entered gain honours.
He said: “It’s great to able add another award to the British Pie Awards earlier this year – gold for the cheese and onion and two silvers for the steak pie and the chicken and chestnut mushroom pie. 2025 has been a good year for us.”
Dan’s Pies is very much a family concern, operating out of a bakery that Dan set up in Pocklington. The seeds for the business were planted more than 30 years ago from when Dan’s parents, John and Jane, ran the Wolds Inn at Huggate and a good homemade pie was always on the menu.
“It’s our own family recipe we have always used for the pastry. It’s that classic butter and lard mix.”
Dan entered his chicken and chestnut mushroom pie and the steak and Wetherby Brew ale pie into Great Taste. The former did not place but judges said of the latter: “Golden pastry with attractive fluting, this is a well-filled pie with plenty of meat and a rich, smooth, creamy sauce, with a subtle aroma of seasoning and hints of ale.
“The beef holds well in the cooking process with a good bite and is well seasoned. Pastry is good. Sauce is shiny and holds well. A good all round product.
“A visually appealing, generously filled pie, with an enticing savoury aroma, this has well-made pastry and excellent flavour. The beef is well-cooked to be succulent and tasty with rich, clean, beef notes – the only negative is the rather too strong bitter notes from the ale.”
Dan’s Pies produces about nine different pie flavours, including apple and cinnamon for sweet pie lovers (plus a Christmas dinner pie for the festive season and a version incorporating haggis for Burns’ Night) and has also more recently expanded into pork pies (made with hot water pastry crusts), sausage rolls and pasties. The company can bake anything from 600 to 1,200 pies a week, and Dan’s working week is across the seven days.
He said: “When my second daughter was born, my first full day off wasn’t until she was six months old. It was working around the clock but now we are seeing the benefits.
“We work the markets year-round – the weekend markets stop in January and February but the weekly ones carry on right through. I’d ideally like to see us in more farm shops, pubs and restaurants.”
The steak pie produced by Dan’s Pies is a perennial favourite with customers, with steak and ale, minted lamb and beef mince and onion also being popular choices. Dan is about to venture into venison territory too.
“My own favourites are the beef mince and onion and the minted lamb,” he said. “I tend to eat a lot of pies cold when I’m on the markets and they work very well cold.”
During lockdown, when the Wolds Inn was forced to close, it started offering takeaway food but Dan said he “wasn’t busy enough”. He started helping out the pub’s “veg man”.
“They had a shop in Beverley where there used to be a butcher’s in the back and a pie press had been left behind. I just thought I’d try it and see if I could make them.”
When lockdown ended, Dan put his pie venture “on the back burner” when the pub reopened. “About three years ago, the chance to sell the pub came along, Mum and Dad sort of retired (they still help out Dan with cover for his market days) and I said I’d do this.
“We got a unit on the industrial estate at Pocklington and turned it into a bakery. We haven’t looked back but it’s been hard work.”
Dan is helped in the pie-making by Mark – “he introduced me to the pork pies” – and his wife, Kirsty, who works on the stall, as well as his parents, who help with deliveries. You can find Dan’s Pies online at danspies.co.uk or at Pocklington Market on Tuesdays, Driffield Market on Thursdays, and Beverley Market on Saturdays, as well as weekly markets and monthly food markets in North Yorkshire.