Have you ever heard of an Aussie Meat Pie Recipe? Think of taking tender and delicious chunks of roast beef that have been cooked in a rich gravy sauce, then placed in a flaky shortbread crust with a puff pastry topping. It does take a bit of effort and time, but the result with recipes like this are worth it.
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Recently, a friend of mine showed me this recipe for the first time a few months ago. She made it and her family just loved it. Then she shared the recipe.
Recently, her son asked her to make them again as he said he craved them. He has experience eating Australian meat pies too and said this one ranks right up there with the best of them.
Individual Pies or a Larger One
This can be made in individual pies for each person to enjoy their special meal made just for them. Tins can be baked individually, or you can get a large-size muffin tin that works very well – about a 5 or 6-inch muffin.
However, this can also be made in a larger pie form if you would rather have more of a potluck for the family and friends to dig into and serve themselves. Then I would just use a deep-dish pie plate or a casserole dish.
Pie Crust or Short Crust
The bottom is made from a quick short crust recipe that is quick to make and totally worth the little bit of extra effort. However, a store-bought pie crust for the bottom will work simply fine too.
Puff Pastry on the Top of the Pie
The top crust is puff pastry cut to fit. While this is a pastry that can also be homemade, it is quite painstaking and takes a good amount of time with the chilling between folding.
Therefore, I purchase my puff pastry and it is amazingly easy to use a bowl to cut the pastry to fit the pie tin.
Short Crust Pastry Filled with Tender Beef and Rich Gravy
This meat pie does require a bit of time, but those are the recipes that everyone seems to remember. If you are like me, you like to be regarded as a good cook and baker.
This is one of those recipes that will have people thinking that you are a professional.
Absolutely amazing!
Secrets to Making Meat Pie Recipe
This does take a bit of time, but each step itself is not hard.
Baking Container. Use a pie tin, large muffin tins, individual ramekin, casserole dish, or a large deep-dish pie plate. Look around and see what you have available, be creative if needed. Note: the time will be longer with a larger container. It will take a bit longer for the ingredients inside to heat through.
Wrap in paper, add a bit of ketchup and you have yourself a delicious Hand-Held Meat Sandwich.
Mince Pie Pastry
Two types if pastry. There are two types of pastry in this pie. The short crust helps keep the pie itself intact. With all the tender chunks of beef and gravy, a lighter crust would get soggy. Further, the puff pastry on the top just gives this pie that extra flaky polish that just give the right amount of texture and crunch.
Short Crust Pastry
The short crust is baked before the filling is added-this is called blind baking. Another step to help reduce any change of a soggy crust.
The short crust should be rather thick versus too thin. This pie is meant to be eaten by holding the pie in your hands. If the crust is not thick enough, it will fall apart. Therefore, if you are using a store-bought crust, do not roll it out any thinner than what it is already. This is about the thickness that you want the crust on the bottom to be.
Drape the pastry into the tin rather than stretch it. This will not only cause the pastry to shrink when baked, it can make it rather thin in placed. Therefore, drape and gently touch into the base.
Prevent the Crust from Sticking to the Tin. The best of us have had a pie crust stick. Here are two methods that you can use to prevent the dough from sticking. 1. Use a bit of spray oil to lightly coat the tin before putting the dough in. 2. Lightly grease or butter the tin and sprinkle a bit of flour on before putting the dough in.
Puff Pastry
Puff Pastry. This is so buttery and flaky. Just the perfect topping for the pie. However, you may have some leftover. If you do, make something out of it. When I was growing up, whenever we had the leftover pie dough, we would brush with butter or water and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar. Cut into ½ inch sticks and bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until golden brown. Just scrumptious. Think about savory toppings that could also be used, maybe as a side for a meal with butter, garlic and cheese sprinkled on.
Aussie Meat Pie Beef Pie Filling
Tender Beef and Gravy Filling. The beef that I use if the same that I would use to make a beef stew. However, to get the rich flavor it is best to brown the meat to help it start to caramelize. It is important to do this in smaller batches as too much beef in the kettle at the same time allows for too much steam rather than the drier cooking needed to get that caramelization.
Simmer the Beef and Gravy a Day Ahead. Cooking the beef low and slow will help develop the flavors and tenderize the beef at the same time. Once cooked through, remove from the heat and cool. Then refrigerate. The pie crust will hold up better to the cooler filling and it will all bake to a delightful finish.
Beef Chunks versus Minced Beef. There are a few folks that may prefer the minced beef or ground hamburger to the beef stew meat. That would work perfectly fine in this recipe. However, it is hard to get ground beef to get the same caramelization as you would on the beef chunks. Therefore, if you use ground beef, you will be losing a bit of the flavor profile, but it is perfectly fine to use.
Wine for the Filling. Use a deep wine like a Merlot. The wine does not have to be expensive, the alcohol will be cooked out during the cooking process. But a deep, rich wine will add so much full-bodies flavor to the meat filling. I suggest giving it a try if you are uneasy about cooking with wine.
Make the Meat Pies Ahead and Freeze
Cook the bottom crust, fill with the cooked beef and gravy and top with the uncooked puff pastry. Wrap well and freeze. Then when you are ready to enjoy this scrumptious meal, give it a thaw and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-30 minutes until the center is hot.
Reheating Meat Pie
Store leftover meat pies in a sealed container in the refrigerator. While this can be microwaved to reheat, I find that the dough tends to get kind of tough. Therefore, if you really want to taste this pie as good as it was on the first day, I strongly recommend taking the time to reheat in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-30 minutes until the center is hot.
Enjoy this delectable comfort food.
Meat Pie Recipe
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Kitchen Essentials
Ingredients
Meat Pie Base
- 2 Batches Short Crust Pastry Can use purchased pie crusts (see the homemade recipe)
Meat Pie Lid
- 3 Sheets Puff Pastry Thawed and cut to size (these I purchased)
- 1 Medium Egg Beat the egg slightly -this will be used to seal the edges of the pie.
Beef Filling
- 2 Tablespoons Oil
- 2 1/2 Pounds Beef Stew Meat Cut in Cubes
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
- 1 Medium Onion Diced
- 4 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 5 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/4 Cups Beef Stock
- 3 Cups Red Wine
- 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
Instructions
Beef Filling Mixture
- Heat oil in a large heavy kettle. Mix the beef with the salt and pepper and add ¼ of the beef to the kettle at a time. Cook on medium-high to caramelize and brown, repeat this with each batch. Add more oil as needed.
- After the last batch of beef has been removed, add the onion and garlic. Cook a few minutes until translucent. Add the flour and stir to combine.
- Add the beef stock, wine, tomato paste, Worcestershire, bay leaves, and additional pepper.
- Return the beef to the kettle. Cover with the lid and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Continue simmering 2 hours. Then remove the lid and continue to cook until the beef is fork tender and the liquid starts to form a gravy. (The gravy will thicken as it cools and more when it is baked in the pie). Cool the filling and chill until cool to the touch. This can be refrigerated and made the day before.
Bottom Pastry Crust
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut out 6 rounds from the short crust pastry, then drape pastry into pie tins. Gently pressing the pastry into the tins.
- Place the pie tins on a cookie sheet. Place a piece of parchment in each and fill with pie weights. Bake 25 minutes, then use the parchment paper to carefully remove the pie weights.
Assembling the Meat Pies
- Once the bottom pastry crusts are baked, fill with the cooled beef and gravy. Making sure to completely fill, a little mound on top is just fine.
- Thaw the puff pastry. Cut slightly larger than the pie tin size so they will hang over the edges slightly. Brush the pastry crust with the beaten egg. Add the puff pastry top and press down the edges slightly to seal the edges. Brush the tops of the pies with the remaining egg. This will help the tops bake into a lovely golden color.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. When the inside is hot and the top is a deep golden color and puffed, they are done and ready to be enjoyed.
Your Own Private Notes
Video
Notes
This Aussie Meat Pie is meant to be eaten with your hands drizzled with ketchup.
Just wrap a piece of paper around the pie to keep all the goodness in.
Meat Pie with Ketchup
Nutrition
A few of my favorite things
The Power of Positivity
Classic Short Crust Pastry
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Kitchen Essentials
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter Cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 3 Tablespoons Ice Cold Water
Instructions
Mixing by hand
- Start with a mixing bowl, add the flour and salt and mix. Then cut the cold butter into small pieces. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to mix until all the butter is worked in and the texture resembles coarse cornmeal.
- Then add the water and continue mixing until the dough pulls together to form a ball.
Mixing with a food processor
- Add the flour and salt to the food processor. Then add small cubes of cold butter and pulse about 10 times or until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Then add in 2.5 Tablespoons of the water and pulse for about 30 seconds. If the dough is not forming a ball nicely or looks too dry, add the last ½ a Tablespoon of the water. Pulse a few more times.
Mixing with a stand mixer
- Then add small cubes of cold butter and beat on medium-low speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the water and beat until the dough just starts to come together. Turnout onto a floured surface and roll out into a dough. Sometimes, you may need to refrigerate to firm up a bit so it holds together better when rolled.
Rolling out the dough
- Sprinkle work surface with flour, unwrap dough and place on the flour. Sprinkle top with flour and roll from the center out turning the dough a quarter turn after each roll. This will help keep the pastry round. Roll until 10-11 inches around.
- To transfer the pastry to the pie plate, tart pan or other container, gently roll the dough over the rolling pin.
- Unroll on the container. Press the pastry into the edges of the pan. Sometimes, edges need to be patched and that is okay, pastry is forgiving this way. Just add a piece or press the pieces together as needed. Remove any excess dough.
- If the dough has too warm, go ahead and pop it into the refrigerator 10-15 minutes to firm up. Then it is time to blind bake. Cut a large piece of parchment paper and place over the pastry; fill with pie weights or dried beans.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Then remove the weights and bake another 10 minutes. (use the paper to remove the weights).
- The pastry can be filled and will continue cooking with the filling. If you want the pastry cooked all the way, cook a bit longer until golden in color.
Your Own Private Notes
Video
Nutrition
A few of my favorite things
The Power of Positivity
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I hope that you liked this recipe. If you are looking for more ideas on what to make, here are a few other recipes that you may enjoy.
You can find Victoria crocheting, quilting, and creating recipes. She has cooked in restaurants for over 20 years, including many larger parties. She learned to crochet when she was just 11 years old and has been crocheting ever since; over 50 years now. Over 40 years ago, she loved her first class in sewing and continues to hone her skills in quilting. Many have enjoyed the handmade gifts over the years. In her professional career, she has worked in management in a wide variety of businesses including higher education as a dean of a division. All the while attending college part-time to achieve her doctorate in higher education with an emphasis in e-learning.
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