A classic pub-style hot meat pie, with chunks of beef and mushroom in an ale-rich pan gravy. The beef for the filling is tossed with a dry mix of spices, brown sugar, sliced onion and wholemeal flour, which holds all the rich juice from the meat as it cooks. Really important to bake it at a low temperature in a sealed container: my way is to wrap it in a non-stick paper, then in foil tightly, before placing it a baking dish in the oven at 140C for 2 hours. Gives a very tender delicious meat mixture ready to combine with gravy – like our vegetarian ale, butter and mustard pan gravy – and sautéed mushrooms for your pie.

Though it’s titled a beef pie, if you want to replace that with pieces of cooked vegetarian sausage when you assemble the pie, do. Just add fried onions (to taste) to the pie as well, and it’ll be brilliant.

You’ll need one of our 20cm (9 inch) Chicago Metallic pie plates, plus our Stainless Steel Flour Dredger (for dusting the pastry as you roll it out) is very helpful. Also a great tray for roasting, like our Chicago Metallic Professional Sheet Pan 24cm x 33cm (1/4: 9 1/2 x 13"), and Siliconised Baking Paper comes in handy too.

Makes one large pie, to fill our BakeryBits Pie Plate 9" (20cm diameter)

Combine the beef, Worcestershire sauce, salt, brown sugar, cayenne, and mustard powder in a bowl and mix well.

Add the sliced onion and wholemeal flour, toss well then wrap in a layer of non-stick paper. Seal the meat foil sealed securely.

Place in a baking tray and bake at 140C for about 2-3 hours until very tender then leave to cool. This can be done in advance, and even frozen (just thaw to use).

Have your Ale, Butter & Mustard Pie Gravy ready, cold if possible, and fry the sliced mushrooms with a little salt in a frying pan until golden. Butter the inside of your 20cm (9”) Pie Plate and keep that in the fridge to chill.

Roll the dough out to about 20cm x 30cm using flour under and on the dough to stop it sticking, then cut the dough almost in half: you want the slightly less dough for the base of the pie than the top.

Place the sheet of dough for the top in the fridge, out of the way. Roll the dough out for the base until it’s about ¼-1/3 cm thick. Lay this inside your pie tin, press it in neatly, and trim off the edge.

Spread a little pie gravy on the base then put half the cooked beef and onion mix in, followed by half the mushrooms, and small spoonfuls of the pie gravy on that. Add the remaining beef, mushrooms, and more of the pie gravy (you wont need all the gravy, you should have a 1/3 – ¼ remaining).

Brush beaten egg around the rim of the pie crust.

Roll out the remaining pastry, lay this over the pie then trim the edge. Crimp the edge of the pie with your finger and thumb, then brush the top of the pie with beaten egg. Re-roll the remaining pastry to decorate the top if you like, and cut or poke slits in the top with a knife for the steam to escape.

Place the pie on a tray to catch any butter as the pie cooks. Bake at 180C fan for 25 minutes then reduce the heat to 160C fan and bake for a further 20 minutes until a dark golden brown. Best served hot.