(Photography: Tim Roberts, Styling: Michele Cranston)
Comfort food doesn’t get much better than a classic cottage pie, and these individual serves make dinnertime even easier. Filled with a rich, savoury beef mince mixture and topped with creamy mashed potato, they’re perfectly portioned for family meals, meal prep or entertaining. Baked until golden and bubbling, these hearty little pies deliver all the nostalgia of the traditional dish in a convenient single-serve package.
Ingredients
Method
Make rough puff pastry.
Roll out pastry to 3mm thick. Cut out eight 12cm rounds using a cookie cutter or bowl as a guide. Line eight holes of two six-hole Texas muffin pans with pastry. Refrigerate while preparing filling and topping.
For the filling, heat oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 4–5 minutes or until softened. Add mince. Cook, stirring, on high heat for 5 minutes until browned.
Add tomato paste and gravy powder. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add stock and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low, then simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until thickened slightly. Add peas in the last 2 minutes. Season. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced.
For the topping, put potato and salt in a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil on high heat. Boil for 15 minutes or until soft. Drain. Return to pot and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds on low heat to remove any excess moisture. Remove from heat. Mash well until smooth. Add butter, milk and egg yolk. Stir until combined. Season.
Spoon cooled filling into prepared pastry holes (about 1/3 cup per hole). Put topping in a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm star piping nozzle. Pipe topping over top of filling in a spiral shape. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake for 30–35 minutes or until pastry and topping is golden brown. Remove from pans and serve.
Make sure there’s no waste
If using red washed potatoes, keep the peelings to turn into crispy potato pieces. Simply pat dry, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 220°C/200°C fan-forced for 12–15 minutes until crisp and golden.
How to prevent soggy bottoms
Hot filling will steam the pastry base from the inside before the pie even hits the oven. Let the mince mixture cool for at least 20 minutes before filling the pastry, so the pie stays crisp and golden underneath.
Level up your mash with these tips
- For an extra-lush mash, swap in pure cream for the milk and double the butter.
- A ricer is a great investment if you love a super-smooth mash.
- Returning the cooked potato to the pan after draining allows excess liquid to evaporate, helping you to achieve a super-fluffy mash.
- Don’t be tempted to mash your potatoes in the food processor. They’ll become stretchy, like glue.
- Using warm milk is important. Adding cold milk to the warm potato can cause it to cool down quickly and become gluggy.
- Feeling extra cheesy? Add 1/3 cup of finely grated parmesan to the mashed potato.
How to pipe the potato
Instead of spirals, you could pipe the mashed potato in a scallop pattern. If you don’t like piping, simply pile the potato on top!
