Irish Cottage Hand Pies with Pick ‘n Save Ingredients

This St. Patrick’s day themed recipe for Irish Cottage Hand Pies is part of a #MyPicknSave #shop compensated by the social shopper amplification company Collective Bias® and its advertiser because I am a member of the Social Fabric® Community. #CollectiveBias

this image

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and I love making themed dishes for the occasion. This year my St. Patrick’s Day recipe is making delicious little Irish Cottage Hand Pies! For me, Cottage Pie has always been a comfort food: hearty vegetables and meat topped with mashed potatoes. But that doesn’t quite translate into a party friendly food now does it? To make this dish more party friendly, I transformed the classic dish into easy to hold and eat Hand Pies, and headed over to my favorite Wisconsin Grocery store, Pick ‘n Save, to pick up all my ingredients for this St. Patrick’s Day themed recipe!

Pick ‘n Save is my go-to grocery store for everything from fresh ingredients to décor. There just so happens to be a Pick ‘n Save right down the street from my house and one right by my in-laws’ house where we go for Sunday family dinners, so it is super convenient to stop on the way over -or- to send my husband out to get me something I may have forgotten that I just NEED in order to complete a recipe…think of me standing in the kitchen looking around and asking him ‘honey, do we have any potatoes?’ and him looking at me with a confused look and me saying ‘would you mind going to Pick ‘n Save and getting me one potato?’ this of course followed be a call from the store ‘what kind of potato, there are like 10 different kinds’ haha. I do all of our family grocery shopping at Pick ‘n Save because they honestly have ALL the freshest ingredients and a HUGE selection of Organics at unbeatable prices.

You might have heard of Shepherd’s Pie before, but did you know that traditional ‘Shepherds Pie’ is made with lamb (theory being that Shepherds are concerned with sheep and not cattle) and when you make it with beef it’s called Cottage Pie? I always thought that was a pretty cool distinction.

Making these Cottage Hand Pies is quite simple, although it does take a little patience while assembling (because you’ll want to just eat all the filling and your house will smell yummy!) Cook the vegetables, cook the beef, roll out the pie dough and cut, stuff, bake and watch them disappear (even if they’re too hot to touch people my husband will want to devour them)!

To add to the St. Patrick’s day theme, I cut a little clover/shamrock design into the top of the Cottage Hand Pies with a sharp knife.

Another wonderful thing about these Hand Pies is that they freeze and reheat well. Just make them, allow to cool, then put them in a freezer safe bag. To reheat just remove as many as desired, allow them to defrost for an hour and then pop in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and viola, as good as fresh out of the oven! Hope you enjoy!

Irish Cottage Hand Pies with Pick ‘n Save Ingredients

No ratings yet

Print Rate

Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Inactive Time: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 24 -30

Ingredients

• 1 Lb Ground Beef
• 1/2 Cup Sharp Cheddar shredded
• 1/2 Large Onion finely chopped
• 1 1/2 Cups Frozen Peas
• 3 Large Carrots chopped to be roughly the size of the peas
• 2 Medium size Potatoes chopped (or 1 very large potato)
• 1/4 Cup Beef Broth
• 2 Tbs Tomato Paste
• 2 Tbs Flour may need a little more for rolling out the dough
• 1 Tbs Butter
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 4 Pie Crusts found in the refrigerated section by the biscuits
• -Egg wash for brushing the tops with- optional
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 Tbs heavy cream or milk will work for this

Instructions

• Start by melting the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat, then add the onion and saute for about 1 minute, then add the carrots and potatoes and a dash of salt and pepper, and stirring every few minutes cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through and start to brown a little. Add the frozen peas, stir and cook for another minute (it is ok if the peas aren't completely cooked-they will cook more when being baked) and then empty contents into a bowl.
• Using the now empty frying pan add the ground beef, 1/2 of the beef stock (1/8 of a cup), Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste. Add a little salt and pepper. Cook the ground beef until no more pink is showing (about 5 minutes) and then add the remaining beef stock and sprinkle a teaspoon of the flour over the mixture, cook until everything is combined and the ground beef is in a thick sauce (about 2 minutes). Add to the bowl containing the vegetables and stir so that everything is combined.
• Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• On a plastic cutting board sprinkle a little flour, unroll one of the pie crusts and cut it in half (makes it easier to work with this way). Sprinkle a little more flour on the top of the dough. With a rolling pin (or you can take the side of a glass and use it as a rolling pin) roll it out a little bit more to get a nice thin layer of crust. Now cut this half in 4s.
• Sprinkle a little cheddar in the center of one half of the 4s and then spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the vegetable/beef filling on top of the cheese. Fold the crust over, and then with a fork or fingers pinch the edges together. You want to make sure you really close all the edges, otherwise filling will leak out. I had a little bowl with water and would dip my fingertips into the water and then that would help with sealing the edges together. As soon as the little hand pie is stuffed and sealed, set it on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat this process of rolling out the dough, cutting, stuffing, and sealing the hand pies until the cookie sheets are full (you will need two prepared baking sheets.)
• To make the egg wash-in a small bowl whisk together the egg yolk and the heavy cream or milk, then brush the tops of the Hand Pies with the wash (the egg wash will give it a beautiful golden look). Cut little air vents on the top of the hand pies (since mine were a St. Patrick's day theme I tried to cut little shamrocks out)
• Bake for 30-35 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling wrack and cool for 10 minutes before serving-watch them disappear!

Notes

The serves 24-30 is how many hand pies you will get, that would serve about 12-15 people because everyone will definitely want more than 1!