Australian Meat Pie Recipe

The Australian meat pie wasn't something that I encountered or had even heard of until I got here.  We had pot pies in the United States but those are extremely different to a meat pie.  Pot pies are something like a thick meat and vegetable stew in a crust whereas a meat pie is meat and gravy in a crust.  It's hard to explain how different it is - but it's very, very different.

Traditionally meat pies are made into little single serving pies - but they can also be made into larger pies for a whole family to share - this is the type that I made.

Australian Meat Pie

Makes 2 large family pies

Ingredients

Filling:

olive oil
2 diced onions
1kg beef mince
2 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
1.5 cups tomato sauce (what Australians call ketchup)
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
2 teaspoons Vegemite

Crust:

500g plain flour
250g chilled, unsalted butter, cubed
2 eggs, cold
2 tablespoon icewater
2 pinch salt (or 1/8 tsp, whichever you prefers)

Instructions

Crust (do this first as it must chill):

Place your flour, butter and a pinch of salt in your food processor.  Blend until the combination looks like bread crumbs.  There should be no significant chunks of butter left.

Whisk together the egg and icewater.  Add to the food processor while it is running and continue mixing until the mixture comes together.

Remove from the food processor and turn out onto a counter or cutting board.  It should not stick to the surface even if it is unfloured.  Bring it together into a ball and flatten it with your hands or a rolling pin until you have a disc.  Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for chilling.

Shortcrust pastry must be chilled before baking.  The colder it is immediately before you pop it in the oven, the crispier your result.  Generally you would chill this disc for 2 hours.  Since heat transfer is linear, the thinner the object, the faster it will chill.  If you are in a hurry - flatten the dough as much as possible.  I roll mine out to 5mm thickness and chill it for 20-30 minutes.

Filling:

In a large saucepan, put a couple lugs of olive oil into the pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and stir until lightly browned.  Add the beef mince and break up, browning.

Meanwhile, separate 2 tablespoons of your beef stock into a small bowl and stir through 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to make a thick paste.  Add back into the rest of the beef stock and bring to a boil in a medium saucepan along with the rest of the filling ingredients (sauces and Vegemite).  When the sauce is hot and has thickened, turn heat off and set aside.

Drain the excess oil from your browned beef mince and onion and stir the prepared sauce through the mince.  Let cool completely (putting a hot sauce into your pie crust will make the butter in it melt before it hits the oven, leaving you with a chewier crust that isn't as crisp).

To assemble your pie:

Preheat oven to 220C

Spray or coat a standard pie dish with oil.  Roll out your pastry to 1/4 inch (6mm) thickness.   Place your pie dish upside down over the pastry and with a sharp knife cut all around the edges of the pie dish - allowing one extra inch of pastry for the sides.  Set this round aside.  Roll out another piece of pastry that will cover your pie.  Place the pie tin down onto the pastry and this time cut flush to the edge all the way around.  You now have your top crust and bottom crust.

Place the bottom crust into the bottom of the pan.  Form to the bottom and sides and trim any excess.

Fill the crust with your cooled pie filling all the way to the top.

Brush milk or water along the edges of the crust - this will help the two crusts stick.

Place your top crust on top of the filled pie and press all along the edges.

If you're feeling insane you can add an incredibly sad cow with some scrap pastry.  He looks mournful - like this pie was baked using his brother.  It probably was.  His brother was delicious.

Coat your pie crust in an egg wash and we're ready for baking.

Bake for 20-30 minutes.  Your pie is finished when the crust is a lovely golden brown and your sad cow looks mournful AND brown.

I shall name him Beefy.  His depression was tasty.

Cut into slices and serve to your hungry family!

This recipe will make 2 pies which will feed 6-8 people each.  To freeze a pie - simply complete the steps but wrap and freeze prior to baking.