These Beef Puff Pasty use store-bought puff pastry and a classic stew recipe. It is a great cold-weather meal that always seems to come out as soon as the weather turns in the fall.
I learned about Beef Pasty’s and how to make them while working at a very traditional Scottish Pub. While most have a traditional pastry crust I like to use frozen puff pastry as it is ready-made and has a really nice light texture. Once your stew is made it comes together pretty quickly.
I usually start by making a traditional stew type filling the day before and let it set up in the fridge. I have seen lots of different variations of fillings with different spice combinations. My filing is kind of standard stew but feel free to mix up with different seasonings or meat mixtures. One package of puff pastry usually has two sheets and makes about 8 pasties. These are great to eat immediately of course but also freeze really well to eat at another time.
Beef Puff Pasty
Ingredients
- 1 lb stewing beef diced into fairly small chunks
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- sea salt and ground pepper to taste
- 1 or 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1/2 cup chopped potato
- 1/2 cup carrots
- 1/4 cup peas
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 sheets frozen puff pastry
- 1 egg for egg wash
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan to medium and add stew beef. Let this brown until nicely seared and then add onions. Stir the onions into the meat mixture and cook until transparent.
- Add in salt, a few grinds of pepper, and Worcestershire sauce and blend evenly. Toss in flour and mix well so that the flour evenly absorbs the juices.
- Add in the beef broth and whisk to blend with flour meat mixture. Toss in remaining vegetables and bay leaves and let simmer for an hour or so. Once the veg has softened I usually put the stew in the fridge overnight as I find it easier to work with a cold filling to stuff the pastries. When the filling is warm sometimes it makes it hard to handle the pastry.
- Now for final Pasty prep. Preheat the oven according to package instructions and place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet.
- Lightly flour your prep surface and spread out the pre-thawed puff pastry in a square which will probably be about 1/8" thick. Cut into 4 even squares per sheet.
- Beat the egg in a separate bowl to use for egg wash. Brush the edges of each of the squares with egg mixture.
- Place a couple tablespoons of filling on each pasty a little off center and then fold over to create a triangle. This filling has a bit of liquid gravy and I try to drain some of this away before using for filling so it does not make the pastry too wet to work with. You want to make sure to allow for about an inch or more of pastry around the filling to allow for crimping and a proper seal.
- You can either crimp the edges or use a fork in a criss-cross pattern to seal the edges. I do a bit of both. Move each pastry to the baking sheet and then brush entire pasty with the egg mixture and place in the oven.
- Because my filling is already cooked I only need to cook the pastry for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown based on the pastry instructions. Let cool a bit before serving. Goes great with a salad of fresh greens.
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