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Aussie Meat Pies
You can’t get more Aussie than the meat pie.
Those who know me would probably be surprised that I would even venture near something that can only be applied to the face with your hands (no knife and fork, please), but the truth is, I have a soft spot for anything that has to do with puff pastry.
Bakeries throughout Australia serve up a variety of meat pies, typically made with a mince beef filling with some variations on offer, such as with mushrooms or onions, a cheesy pie lid, or perhaps with chunks of beef for something wonderful like a Beef and Guinness Pie.
As someone who grew up in a family-run bakery, I have sampled my fair share of meat pies and I like mine with a good amount of gravy in the filling (nevermind any dribbles – that’s what napkins are for), with some mushy peas under the lid and generous dollop of Heinz tomato sauce (ketchup) on top.
Australian Meat Pie Recipe
Since moving to Switzerland, the absence of meat pies at lunch has often been felt, despite the more healthy and equally delicious local fare on offer. So I like to make a batch of meat pies now and then, squirrelling some away in the freezer for those times when only a hot meat pie will do.
In experimenting with different meat pie fillings, I have found that most recipes require you to make a beef stew of sorts, so that you have nice chunks of meat in the filling. In fact, I quite often make meat pies from leftover beef stew.
But the more common Aussie meat pies, i.e. the ones that you are likely to find in most suburban bakeries in Australia, are made using minced beef (ground beef).
When I came across this particular recipe some time ago using a minced meat filling, I was a bit curious about the addition of curry powder as an ingredient. But it really works! It is the ingredient which lifts the beef mince filling to something on par with the iconic meat pie that you will find from any good bakery in Australia.
This recipe comes from Katie Quinn Davies of the ever-inspiring food photography blog, What Katie Ate, and the original recipe can be found here. Below is my adaptation.
How to Make Aussie Meat Pies
The meat pie filling should be made ahead of time so that it has had a chance to cool down before you start assembling the pies.
Most savoury meat pies use a shortcrust pastry base, and topped with a puff pastry lid. At a pinch, you could use puff pastry for both the base and lid.
When making pies, it is always a good idea to blind-bake the pastry base first to ensure that the pastry will be cooked through when the pie is finished. You could possible skip this step for party pies or little meat pies, but I think blind-baking the pastry base tends to give better results in the end.
I blind-bake these party pies by slipping a paper cupcake case or muffin case into each pastry shell, and fill the cases with some baking beans or ceramic pie weights.
Aussie Meat Pies
Ingredients
For the Meat Pie Filling
- 1 brown onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 5 rashers bacon, thinly sliced
- 500 g (1 lb) minced beef, (ground beef)
- sea salt
- black pepper, freshly cracked
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
- 1 teaspoon curry powder, optional
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
- 250 ml (1 cup) beef stock
- 1 tablespoon plain flour, (all-purpose flour)
For the Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
To Assemble the Meat Pies
- shortcrust pastry
- puff pastry
- poppy seeds, or sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
To Make the Meat Pie Filling
- Heat a frying pan over medium heat.
- Gently cook the onions and garlic in some oil and with a sprinkle of sea salt until they have softened.
- Add the bacon and continue cooking until the bacon is crispy.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon and onion mixture to a bowl. Set aside.
- Add some more oil to the pan and cook the ground beef with some salt and pepper until it is well browned.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, curry powder, ground nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Return the bacon and onion mixture to the pan.
- Stir through the beef stock.
- Simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and then mix it in well.
- Simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Taste for seasoning.
- The sauce should have thickened by this stage, but still have a slightly runny texture. If it is too dry, add some boiling water to create more sauce.
- Set aside to cool completely.
To Assemble the Meat Pies
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F (without fan).
- Cut the shortcrust pastry into rounds large enough to fill the muffin holes.
- Place the shortcrust pastry into the muffin holes and prick the base with a fork.
- Place a muffin case (preferably plain) on top of the shortcrust pastry and fill each muffin case with some baking beans or ceramic pie weights, or uncooked rice grains.
- Blind bake the pastry for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the muffin case and pie weights.
- Fill the pastry cases with some meat filling.
- Make an egg wash by lightly whisking together the egg with milk in a small bowl.
- Brush the edges of the pastry with some egg wash.
- Cut pastry lids from the puff pastry and place them on top of each pie.
- Gently pinch the edges to seal the pie together.
- Brush the top of each pie with some egg wash.
- If you wish, sprinkle the pies with some poppy seeds or sesame seeds.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.
Kitchen Notes
- OVEN & STOVE TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website have been tested on an induction stove and/or with a conventional oven (i.e. an oven without fan). All recipes on this website use temperatures for a conventional oven, unless otherwise mentioned. Convection ovens (i.e. fan-forced ovens) are typically 20°C/70°F hotter than conventional ovens, but please check your manufacturer’s handbook. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Did you make this recipe?
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This recipe was first published on 28 January 2012. It has been updated with new photos and more comprehensive recipe notes.
Oh looks DELICIOUS!!!! Thanh! A shot of a half eaten one! Surely you must have one with it cut open..am desperate to see into it!! With the curry powder, am sure I will love these! Beautiful photos ;-))
I’m afraid there’s none left! 😉 Though, I’m continuing the Australia Day celebrations this weekend and am making more meat pies …
You ate them ALL???
Good lass!!!! 😛
I’m getting hungry!! 🙂 Those meat pies looks sooo tasty!!Thanks for sharing.
Well it is about lunch time now … I could do with a meat pie myself if there were any left!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! That is all there is to say, these are beautiful! I love the filling you chose because for me, like everyone I suppose, when I read a list of ingredients, a small flag goes up in my head telling me ‘this is a winner!’ when a certain ingredient is included. So as the curry powder attracted you to this recipe (and I would have to agree with you there!), the Worcestershire Sauce on the list set off my taste buds and dilated my pupils!
I agree with Caroline, dying to see the inside of these little gems. What exactly is their diameter Creme? Do you bake them in a regular muffin pan?
Hello Sami! Oh Worcestershire sauce is also something on my radar 🙂 It’s nice when you can gauge from the recipe if it will work or not … I’m sure it’s a natural talent for you but I’m only getting better at it now!
Yes, these are baked just in a regular muffin pan. In Australia, they would be called “party pies”, but they are more commonly sold as pretty big meat pies, about 10-12cm in diameter, for a more substantial meal.
I should confess that these photos were taken some time ago (you can peek at my FB album); I made them again this week with the intention of taking updated photos but they disappeared too quickly!
Can’t beat a good pie. I especially love it when you can taste buttery pastry as well as the filling. All too often the pastry is an afterthought – when it is really a star in its own right! This recipe sounds delicious. I feel a pie cook-a-thon coming on!
Oh yes, good pastry is a must! To that end, I quite prefer the smaller pies – more ratio of pastry to meat 🙂
They look perfect. Such neat presentation. I hope to do a vegetarian version or will that be blasphemous?
Oooh … a meat pie without meat would not be a “meat pie”, if you know what I mean 😉 But you can definitely find vegetarian pies which are essentially mixed chopped vegetables (carrots, peas, cauliflower, potato) cooked in either a thickened stock or thickened cream sauce and then encased in pastry. My mum used to make those in the bakery and they were quite delicious, especially with a good squirt of Heinz tomato sauce 🙂
Those look gorgeous ! Your choice of filling wouldn;t be mine, but as a concept, and a basic recipe… I love little meat pies (and big ones !)
Is that because of the curry powder, Liz? Or just minced meat in general? I have to say that I’m not the biggest fan of minced meat, but in small doses, it’s ok 🙂
Yes, partly the curry powder, of course, but I’m also not a fan of barbecue sauce. It’s one of those “I can eat it but I’d never choose it unless there was nothing else” type of things. It would be an easy recipe to customise though, using flavourings and sauce to suit.
Very much enjoying your Australian dishes. Party pies are little morsels of heaven.
I’m so happy to hear that, Billie! 🙂 I can never say no to a party pie … I would love to recreate the Four ‘n Twenty Pies at home but these come close.
I’m an Aussie living abroad too, and I just saw the photograph of these “Aussie Meat Pies” on Pinterest. My heart went a flutter….. I ate meat pies as a child and loved them. I stay clear of (deny myself) pastry these days, but your article did bring memories flooding back to me. Am looking forward to a trip home in May so maybe, just maybe I’ll indulge. Thank you for the lovely photographs and delicious recipe.
Hi Joyce! I’m happy to hear that these meat pies brought back some good memories 🙂 I get a craving for them now and then and end up having to make a whole batch! Not so good for the hips but they are so good as a snack. Whenever we visit Australia, I also try to sneak in a pie or two, plus some other junk food which I seem to miss. It’s funny the types of food that you miss when you live abroad but it makes you appreciate Australia more, I think 🙂
They look unbelievable, lovely photos and I tried the recipe, its beaut. I didn’t prick the pastry bases and got a bit of a soggy bottom. Does this help much with the cooking process? I must admit I’m more of a pie fan than a pie chef, but I’m slowly learning. I was wondering if there’s any way of getting round the blind baking, as I’m always stuck for time and usually just want to scoff the mixture by the time I get the bases cooked.
Glad you liked the recipe! If you’re after a pie with a crisp base, there’s no getting around the blind-baking, unfortunately. You can certainly skip the blind-baking, but your base will be paler in colour and not as crisp, though they shouldn’t be soggy. Make sure that your filling is completely cool before you start assembling the pies – even a slightly warm filling will make the pastry go soggy.
And pricking the pastry bases with a fork stops the pastry from rising as it bakes, thereby giving you a flattish surface to pour the filling on top.
Hope these tips will help you!
Hey there! These sound awesome. I like your idea if freezing a few. Do you bake them all, the cool, freeze and defrost when needed, then reheat for 15 minutes or so in the oven, or do you freeze before baking and cook from frozen, but for longer? Thanks. 🙂
Hi Sue,
If I were to make these pies to freeze, I would skip the blind-baking of the pastry, although you could still go ahead with this step if you wish.
So I would cut out the pastry cases and line the muffin tins, fill each pastry case with the meat filling, top with a pastry lid and then put the whole muffin tin into the freezer. When the pies have frozen, remove them from the muffin tin and place them into a zip-lock freezer bag.
When you are ready to bake them, I would brush the frozen pies with egg-wash before putting them into the oven, and give them perhaps an extra 5 minutes or so in the oven for the filling to fully heat through and for the pastry to bronze.
This is what I do whenever I make a large batch of meat pies or sausage rolls.
If you have some baked pies leftover, I find that they keep well in the fridge and can be reheated in the oven without too much problem, although the pastry and filling will be a little drier than when freshly baked. They will still taste great and this is what a lot of bakeries do anyway with leftover pies.
I hope this helps!
Loved reading this post after I came back from travelling Australia for 6 weeks. Especially the idea of making little meatpies in a muffin tin! I made them, with a beef stew filling, last Sunday;
These look amazing 😀 , might be making these soon but would it be very different if i used steak pieces rather than mince?
I think diced-up steak could work very well in this recipe, however you should try to use a cut of beef which won’t become tough. Perhaps a better alternative would be some chuck steak or another cut which would require slow-cooking for about an hour (if cut into small dice) until it is tender. Using this cut of meat would take much longer to cook but they make for great meat pies 🙂
Excellent advice, thank you 🙂
excellent recipe
Oh my goodness this look absolutely amazing! It truly looks delicious! I definitely want to try this! Thank you for sharing this great recipe!
Sounds wonderful but I’ve never heard of baking beads! What are they? Thanks!!!
Hello,
Baking beans are also called ceramic pie weights. They are usually sold in a small jar or tub and you use them when blind-baking pastry to add weight. If you don’t have baking beans, uncooked rice grains or uncooked beans also work well. Hope this helps!
Do you have recipes for the two different crusts: shortcrust and puff pastries?
I haven’t published recipes for these types of pastries yet. I make my own shortcrust pastry, but I often buy good-quality puff pastry as it is pretty time-consuming to make.
Hi!
Where did you find those individual pie tins? What are the dimensions of them?
Thanks!!!
Hi Stacy,
They are actually individual muffin tins 🙂 I found them at a department store in Paris and bought two sets to replace my usual muffin tins which had seen better days. I love these individual muffin tins because they stack perfectly and take up almost no room! Hopefully you can find some near you.
Did I miss something? At which point do you add the bacon mixture?
Lee Rischitelli- yes, you missed step seven (7).
Delicious! My husband said it is the best pie he has ever had. I didn’t have time to blind bake the pasty, and so I cooked the pie for a little longer.
Delicious! This helped me pass my GCSE cooking exam, thank you so much.
Hi, may I ask the dimensions of your pie tins please? I am in Switzerland and trying to find Australian Meat Pie tins is not so easy. So I will use a substitute and your look a good shape and size. Many Thanks
Hi Nicole,
Ah yes, it might be impossible to find meat pie tins here in Switzerland ???? Your best bet is a muffin tin or to look online. The tins I have used in these photos are stackable individual muffin tins which I bought in France. They are 7.5 cm wide at the rim, and 4 cm high. Hope this helps!