Steak and Mushroom Pies

Note: The amount of pastry dough will depend on the size of pie you want to make. This recipe can make various types or sizes of pies:

For 24 muffin tray size pies, you’ll need 6 sheets shortcrust pastry and 4 sheets puff pastry.
For 16 mini loaf tray size pies, you’ll need 4 sheets shortcrust pastry and 2 sheets puff pastry.
For 2 muffin tray size pies and a standard size pie, you’ll need 3 sheets shortcrust pastry plus 2 sheets puff pastry for the muffin pies, and 1 sheet of each for the big pie (or a total of 4 sheets shortcrust pastry and 3 sheets puff pastry).
For 8 mini loaf tray size pies and a standard size pie, you’ll need 2 sheets shortcrust pastry and 1 sheet puff pastry for the mini loaf pies, and 1 sheet of each for the big pie (or a total of 3 sheets shortcrust pastry and 2 sheets puff pastry).

For the pie filling:

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large saucepan or frying pan on medium to high heat. (You will need a large saucepan to make the gravy, but I use a frypan to brown the meat.) Brown beef, in batches if you have to, transferring the browned beef to a large bowl while you finish browning the rest of the beef.

At this point I changed from using a frying pan to a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan on medium heat. Add remaining oil and onion and fry for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook for a few minutes, or until soft.

Return beef to saucepan. Add flour, nutmeg and tomato paste. Stir for about 1 minute. If you don’t like a very thick tomato gravy, then add 1/2 cup of tomato paste. However, I recommend trying it with the thick gravy.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and the stock. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the water. The flour will make the mixture very thick, so the water is needed to thin it out. Be careful, you don’t want too much water because the mixture is going to go in pies.

With the lid on the saucepan, bring the mixture to a boil. Once bubbling, reduce the heat. Allow the mixture to simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes with lid on saucepan. Stir regularly.

Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

Defrost the pastry you are using. Do this about 5 minutes before you need to make the pies.

To make the pies:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (390ºF).

Grease muffin tin holes/mini loaf pans with butter or oil. Do this liberally as we want the pies to come out easily. Line each muffin/loaf hole with shortcrust pastry up to the rim. I use a cup that is a centimeter or so bigger than the muffin holes to cut circles in the pastry. The cup will cut through the pastry and you can peel it away to line the tray with. If doing this in mini loaf pans, measure the mini loaf size and, adding a centimeter on either side of the rectangle, score the pastry to the size of the pan. Using a knife cut out a rectangle and line the tray with the pastry.

Spoon filling into muffin/loaf holes.

Cut circles/rectangles of puff pastry to fit top of pies. Press puff against shortcrust pastry to seal each pie.

Brush pies with beaten egg and make a small hole in centre of pie to release steam (poke with a fork).

Bake pies for 10 minutes.

Reduce oven heat to 160ºC (320ºF) and bake for 20-25 minutes. The top of the pies should be flaky and a lovely golden brown. Be careful not to burn the pastry.