A classic Beef and Guinness Pie, made easy with a store-bought puff pastry topping!
If you’re looking for a special dish for St. Patrick’s Day that doesn’t involve corned beef, this is it!
This Easy Beef and Guinness Pie uses ready-made puff pastry and is full of wonderful flavours from the Guinness-braised beef in a rich gravy.
Ingredients and substitutions
Beef – stewing beef is just fine here, but you could also cube up any beef steak if you like.
Guinness Beer – needs no introduction. This is the best option for this pie.
Puff Pastry – store-bought frozen puff pastry sheets will make this pie easy. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
Recipe Tip!
You may be tempted to add some potatoes or vegetables into this pie but take my word for it, it’s better without, leaving the beef to shine on it’s own. This pie is wonderful served with a side of mashed potatoes and vegetables and of course, a pint of Guinness.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
This pie is best enjoyed freshly baked. You can assemble the pies ahead and refrigerate to bake later. Be sure to allow a little extra baking time for chilled pies.
These pies can be frozen before or after baking. Allow extra baking time for frozen pies.
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Get the Recipe: Beef and Guinness Pie with Puff Pastry Topping
Ingredients
Stew:
- 2 pounds stewing beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup Guinness , or other Irish stout
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Pastry:
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F. (not fan-assisted).
- In a shallow bowl or deep plate, stir together the flour, salt, and pepper. Pat the beef dry with a paper towel. Coat the beef on all sides in the flour mixture and then shake off the excess flour. Transfer the floured beef to a separate plate.
- In a large Dutch oven or oven-proof pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat on your stove top until very hot. Brown the beef in batches, adding only enough to cover the bottom of the pan each time. Turn regularly to brown beef on all sides. This should take about 5 minutes for each batch of beef. Transfer the browned beef to a clean bowl or plate and set aside.
- Into the same large pot (without cleaning), add the onion and garlic and cook, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pot and stirring frequently, until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. If necessary, you can add a bit of water to the pot if it seems too dry and things are sticking too much. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the browned beef along with any juices accumulated in bowl. Add the broth, beer, Worcestershire sauce and thyme and bring this to a simmer over medium heat. Cover the pot and transfer to the pre-heated 350° oven. Note: If you’re pot doesn’t have a lid, just cover it tightly with tin foil, instead.
- Allow meat to cook in the oven until the beef is very tender and sauce has thickened, about 1 1/2 hours. If the sauce is not thick enough at this point, cook a little longer with the lid off, to cook off some of the liquid. Remove from oven and let partially cool before proceeding. The stew needs to cool a bit before assembling pies, or it will melt the uncooked pastry topping.
- Place baking dish or dishes onto a shallow baking pan and pre-heat oven to 425° F.
- If making individual pies, divide the cooled stew among bowls. They won’t be completely full. Alternately, spoon all the meat mixture into a baking dish. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the puff pastry dough into a square about 1/8 inch thick. Trim the edges to make an even square, if necessary. For four individual pies, cut the dough into four equal pieces. For one pie, leave whole. Stir together the egg and water and brush a 1-inch border of egg wash around edge of pastry. Invert pastry over each bowl and drape it over the sides, pressing lightly to help it stick to the sides of the bowls. Brush the tops of the pastry with some of remaining egg wash.
- Bake pies in the preheated 425° oven until the pastry is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400° and bake 5 minutes more to fully cook the dough through.
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
I made it in the slow cooker after browning. It was great!
Glad you enjoyed it, Melissa :)
This sounds wonderful – wondering if you’ve tried it with a slow cooker? Mine has a searing option that I could do all the work before you put your pot in the oven. Think I could then just turn my slow cooker on low for 4-6 hrs?
Thanks.
Hi Kiki, I think this would work just fine in a slow-cooker!
Thanks Katie. It is a really tasty pie. I highly recommend it!
That looks incredible. Wow.