A classic favorite of British comfort food, the ground beef pastry is a hearty and satisfying dish that captures the essence of traditional English cooking. Made with perfectly seasoned minced beef, onions, and a hint of rich gravy, this savory filling is wrapped in a buttery, flaky or shortcrust pastry that bakes to golden perfection. It’s simple, wholesome, and deeply flavorful, the kind of food that warms you from the inside out.

Ground beef pastries are enjoyed across the UK in many forms, from the humble meat pie to the hand-held pasty. Each bite delivers the ideal balance of crisp pastry and juicy, meaty goodness. Whether served hot with mashed potatoes and peas, or enjoyed cold on a picnic, it’s a timeless dish that celebrates the best of English home-style baking.

As well as beef and onions, which are considered essential, you can also add diced vegetables of your choice to make this almost a full meal. In this example I've used diced carrots and celery as that is what I had available, you could also use: potatoes, turnip or swede, peas etc, but only up to 3 veg including the onions. In this version I'm using shortcrust pasty.

Note, these are not Cornish Pasties, click here for Cornish Pasties.

This recipe will make 6 pasties based on a 8 inch plate for the dough base.

Pastry

Notes

1. This pastry recipe is the standard flour/fats 2:1 ratio, for the butter and lard you can just use 113 g which is 1 stick and it won't make any difference.
2. It is important to use bread flour when making the pastry for a pasty. This is because using bread flour will make a stronger pastry (because of the higher protein content), this will help stop the pastry breaking when being folded over and when crimping.
3. The salt added to egg wash helps the egg breakdown and this produces a silky smooth egg wash. Make sure you beat it well.

Filling

Notes

1. For the ground/minced beef it should be 15 to 25% fat, anyless and it will be too dry and not have great flavor.
2. The veg amounts are only approx,. you can add more or less depending on how much you like veg, note while it is simmering the veg will cook down a lot, the onions will almost disintergrate so you can actually add in more that you may think.
3. The OXO cube is a well known British brand of beef stock cube, but you can use any.

Preparing The Pastry

1. The pastry is standard shortcrust pastry, except as mentioned, it's important to use bread flour, so if you are familiar with making pastry you can skip a head to the making the filling.
2. Mix the flour and salt.
3. Cut the cold butter and lard into small cubes, in a large bowl add to flour and use fingers to make a bread crumb type consistency (or use a food processor).
4. Add the cold water a little at a time, mix with a wooden spoon, bring the dough together and tip out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead for a few minutes until you have a fairly uniform and smooth dough, needing is required to develop some gluten so the dough has some strength required for folding and crimping. Wrap in film and leave in fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preparing The Filling

1. In a pan break up and brown the ground beef, add the diced vegetables and cook until softened.
2. In a cup add 8oz, of hot water to the gravy granules, mix well and add to the beef and veg.
3. Add all the seasoning ingredients, crumble in the OXO cube, mix well and simmer on a low heat for 45 minutes.
4. It's important to simmer on a low heat for quite a while to really bring out all the flavors and make the meat very tender. Stir often and add additional water if it looks like it is drying out.
5. Taste test and adjust seasoning if required, remove from pan and allow it to cool. You cannot add hot filling to pastry.

Building the Pasty

1. Cut up the pastry into approx 4-6 pieces, roll into a ball then roll out so it is at least 8 inch in diameter, use an 8 inch plate to cut out a circle.
2. Wet half the edge of the circle with water, add approx 3-4 tablespoons of the cooled filling into the center in a strip, lift up the edges and form the pasty. If the filling looks too dry, ad a few tablespoons of water and mix before adding to the pastry, you want the filling to be moist.
3. Do either a Cornish Pasty style crimp or just use a fork, cut a hole in the top to let steam out.
4. Make up the egg wash and beat really well until smooth, egg wash the pasties and leave in fridge for a while to firm up again

Baking the Pasties

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F, if you want a really great golden color egg wash the pasties again. Bake in oven for about 35 minutes, as the filling is already cooked (unlike Cornish Pasties) you are only baking the pastry. Bake until golden brown but not burnt!.