Recipe Background
Mini Beef & Cheddar Pies with flaky pastry are perfect for celebrations.
The night before my sister's big promotion, I remember pacing around the kitchen with a sense of urgency. She requested something special for her celebratory picnic and I wanted it to be memorable. I rummaged through my pantry and found an almost-forgotten can of beef stock and a wedge of aged white cheddar—perfect for a rich and comforting filling. I always keep puff pastry stocked, knowing its buttery layers can elevate any dish. The pressure to create something unforgettable fueled my creativity.
Crafting these mini beef and cheddar pies became an artful dance of flavor and technique. I browned the beef meticulously, letting it scrape against the bottom of the pan to collect those savory browned bits. After adding Worcestershire sauce and letting it reduce, the aroma filled the kitchen with a kind of joyous anticipation. Chilling the filling was the perfect step to ensure that the pastry wouldn’t become soggy later. As I cut the perfect rounds from the dough, I couldn’t help but feel triumphant. My trusty egg wash provided the final seal, ensuring golden tops that would flake delightfully with each bite.
The day of the picnic was breezy and sunlit. As my sister bit into a pie, the crisp pastry cracked just right, revealing the peppery beef and tangy cheddar core. She winked at me knowingly, and I realized, in those moments of shared laughter and flavor, that recipes like these are what memories are made of.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 (17.3-ounce 2-count) packages pre-rolled puff-pastry, thawed in the refrigerator
- 3/4 cup aged white cheddar cheese finely diced
- 1 egg
Directions
- In a large frying pan over medium heat, add the olive oil.
- Add the onions to the hot oil and cook, while stirring often, until tender and starting to brown on the edges, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the garlic to the onions and cook, while stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the ground beef to the onion mixture and cook, while crumbling the beef, until the meat is no longer pink, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the salt and the black pepper to the beef mixture and stir to combine.
- Sprinkle the flour over the beef mixture and cook, while stirring, until the raw flour smell disappears, about 1 minute.
- Add the beef stock and the Worcestershire sauce to the beef mixture and stir to combine.
- Bring the beef mixture to a boil, while scraping the bottom of the pan to release the browned bits.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the beef mixture to simmer until it has reduced and thickened, about 6-8 minutes.
- Pour the beef mixture into a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Cover and refrigerate the beef mixture until completely chilled, about 1-2 hours.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Transfer the puff pastry sheets from refrigerator and roll the sheets to an 1/8-inch thickness.
- Cut the puff pastry sheets into 12 (4-inch) rounds and 12 (3-inch) rounds. You may want to pre-mark the rounds before cutting to ensure you have enough of the puff pastry sheets mapped out.
- Transfer the puff pastry rounds to the prepared baking sheet.
- Let the puff pastry rounds chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
- Place 1 of the large puff pastry rounds into the base of each prepared muffin cup, pressing along the sides so they are flush with the bottom and the sides of the tin. The dough should slightly overlap the rims of the muffin cups, so stretch the dough a little as needed.
- Transfer the beef mixture from the refrigerator.
- Add the white cheddar to the beef mixture and stir to combine.
- Evenly divide the beef mixture between pastry rounds in the muffin cups, packing each cup to the top.
- In a bowl, add the egg and beat it.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pastry overlapped in the muffin cups with the beaten egg.
- Top each of the beef mixtures in the cups with 1 of the smaller puff pastry rounds, pressing around the edges with a fork to create a seal.
- Cut a small slit into the top of each of the pies.
- Brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg.
- Freeze the pies for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Bake the pies until golden-brown, about 20-25 minutes.
- Allow the pies to cool for 10 minutes.
- Serve.
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