Beef Wellington Hand Pies

These hand pies were not what I intended to make for dinner the other night.  I had seen a recipe for steak and mushroom pot pies on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and really meant to make those.  But then I realized the day before that I didn’t have enough of an appropriate cut of beef in the freezer, and it was too late to retrieve more from the freezer of the friend that we split the cow with all those months ago.  Thinking to just increase the mushrooms to round things out, I continued rounding up ingredients, but found that I had used up the last of the beef stock I had made, and was now missing two pretty key ingredients.  It was starting to look like take-out night.

But then Vince and I started talking about separate trips to London we had made a few years ago, and I remembered some really good hand pies I’d had, including and ground beef and mushroom one.  With that, the ground beef, mushrooms and puff pastry I had started to sound a lot like Beef Wellington.  A quick visit to Google confirmed that the addition of wine, cream, thyme and onions (all things I already had in the house) would get me all of the flavors of traditional Beef Wellington.  And they turned out wonderfully.  Surprisingly quick to put together, and absolutely delicious, these made a really fun twist on Beef Wellington.

Beef Wellington Hand Pies

What’s in them:

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

2 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1 lb. ground beef

1 Tbsp butter

1 c sliced cremini mushrooms

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ c red wine

2 Tbsp heavy cream

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 egg

How to make them:

Heat oven to 400°.

Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan.  Crumble the ground beef into the pan to brown, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside the beef, discard the drippings, and wipe out the pan.

Heat butter and the remaining oil in the pan, and add onions and cook until they begin to soften.  Add the mushrooms, continuing to cook until vegetables are browned.  Add garlic and thyme, and deglaze the pan with the red wine.  Stir in the cream and Worcestershire sauce, then add the beef back to the pan, gently stirring to combine.

Roll the thawed puff pastry into a 1/8” thick sheet, and cut into 4 equal portions.  Spoon the beef mixture onto the puff pastry, being careful to not over fill each and to leave a ½” border.  (You'll probably have extra filling; I used the leftovers to top some egg noodles for a quick lunch).  Whisk the egg with a little water, and brush the egg mixture onto the edges of the pastry.  Fold the pastry over and seal, using a fork to crimp the edges.

Arrange pastries on a baking sheet, brush each with the egg wash, and cut two small slits in the top of each.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.