Main: Beef & Beer Pie
Women’s Weekly Cooking for Friends
Dessert: Caramel Apples with Crumbs & Cream
Women’s Weekly Cooking for Friends
Hi Everyone!
Hope you’re all well. I’m back on board now after a bit of a break and ready to roll full steam ahead into Winter. Now, I’m certainly not a lover of the cold weather, however, what I do like is all the comforting wintery meals we tend to lean towards during these months of “hibernation”. So I’ve had all the recipe books out looking for some yummy things to cook in the coming weeks. Quite a few of them have the benefit of being able to do them ahead because they are in the form of pie filling or casserole.
This scrumptious Beef & Beer Pie is no exception. Firstly the cheaper cut of meat is always a bonus – feed the family for less but then prepping the meat and even the pastry ahead of time during those busy working weeks has got to be a massive winner. The filling is super easy to throw together and cooks away for 2 hours with very little interference needed from you. So, tick that box and now the pastry – this is without a doubt the best shortcrust pastry I have every worked with.
It rolls out beautifully and lifts into the pastry case with ease. I don’t know about you but I am always having bits of pastry fall away as I’m trying to shape out the pastry case and then I have to do a repair job on it. Well, not so with this pastry. It keeps it’s shape after rolling and it is incredibly easy to make yourself look super professional. I actually don’t think I have every done a pie that looks this good. Wahooo, kudos to me. I served the pie with mash and peas and the small amount of leftover pie will certainly be scoffed up by the MAV for lunch. 10/10 unanimously!
The dessert was a little disappointing from a visual point of view. Yes, I know that food photography can fool us a little bit but I really did expect the apples to become far more caramelised looking. I certainly couldn’t have cooked them any longer because they were starting to fall apart as it was. That being said and forgetting the way they looked, I must say that the overall taste was really yummy and kind of comforting.
The apples are topped with moreish crumbs made from almond meal, oats, chia seeds and allspice and then baked in the oven. I had some cooked crumb mixture left over and I am keeping it in the fridge in an airtight container for future use. Even just on top of ice-cream. Serve this with cream and/or ice cream. Conclusion – I would probably just do apple crumble and use the topping from this recipe. 8/10
Until next week,
From my table to yours with love x
