Flaky, buttery pastry, rich beef mince and an oozy, gooey cheese filling make these New Zealand mince and cheese pies a Kiwi classic worth trying at home. Store-bought puff pastry and a muffin tin turn them into gorgeous little party pies you can eat with one hand, ideally with tomato sauce for dunking.
Table of Contents
- New Zealand Mince and Cheese Pies, at a Glance
- A Little Taste of Home
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How to Make Mince and Cheese Pies
- Kate’s Three Top Tips for Making the Best Mince and Cheese Pies
- Mince and Cheese Pie FAQs
- Like this recipe? Try these New Zealand favorites next
- New Zealand Mince and Cheese Pies Recipe
New Zealand Mince and Cheese Pies, at a Glance
⏰ Time: 1 hour 30 minutes, plus cooling
🍽️ Makes: 12 small party pies, or 1 large family pie
🛒 Key Ingredients: Ground beef, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, sharp cheddar, milk, white miso paste, store-bought puff pastry
👩🍳 Skill Level: Confident beginner
⏳ Plan Ahead: Make both fillings the day before baking so they’re completely cold and ready for assembly
🧀 Why it Works: Thick beef gravy, oozy cheesy béchamel, and crispy golden puff pastry make a gorgeously moreish, crowd-pleasing bite
🇳🇿 Perfect For: Handheld party food, game day snacks, when you want a little taste of New Zealand
A Little Taste of Home
Growing up in New Zealand, mince and cheese pies were one of those things you could pick up almost anywhere.
They’re weirdly acceptable at any time of day – as a mid-morning snack, lunch, even for dinner, or a cheeky bite after a late night!
When I moved to London, I was surprised that these pies weren’t a thing here. You could get a pie in a pub, but they’re very different. They tend to use shortcrust pastry, or often just a pastry lid, which I don’t class as a proper pie. And using ground beef doesn’t seem to be a thing, let alone mince and cheese. So I started making my own.
The creamy cheese sauce layer is my favorite part of this version. Rather than adding grated cheese, I use a thick, cheesy béchamel, a trick I learned while working at Herne Bay Food Store in Auckland. It adds an extra step, but gives you that beautiful oozy filling synonymous with a great mince and cheese pie.
I like making these as mini party pies using a muffin tin, but you can make bigger individual pies or one large pie with this recipe.
I tried for a long time to perfect my mince and cheese pie recipe, and I’d like to think I’ve got there.
Wow, these were fantastic! I made them for my wife after looking through quite a few New Zealand-style meat pie recipes online. This one sounded the most appealing, and it definitely did not disappoint. We had them with the family around a campfire, and they were a huge hit! Rich, savory, and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Beef mince (ground beef). This forms the bulk of the rich, savory filling. I prefer using mince that isn’t too lean for the best flavor (12% or 15% is good).
- Anchovies, fish sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. These powerhouses give the beef filling a lovely deep, savory richness. I promise the anchovies and fish sauce won’t make the filling taste fishy, and the anchovies melt down as they cook. They just provide a deeper umami flavor you can’t get with salt alone.
- Cheddar and blue cheese. I like using sharp, mature cheddar for the best cheesy flavor. A little creamy blue cheese adds extra richness, but you can skip it if you’re not a fan. Just use more cheddar, or you could replace it with Parmesan.
- Puff pastry. Store-bought, ready-rolled puff pastry makes things nice and simple. I prefer all-butter puff pastry for the best flavor, rather than one made with vegetable oil.
- Milk, butter, and plain (all-purpose) flour. These make the thick, cheesy béchamel. Use whole milk if you can, but skim or low-fat milk works too if that’s what you prefer.
- White miso paste. This is an optional addition to the béchamel, but if you can’t find it, don’t worry too much. It just adds an extra layer of umami to the sauce.
How to Make Mince and Cheese Pies
This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the pies – the full recipe with ingredient quantities is at the bottom of the page for you.
- Start with the beef filling. Add your onion and a little olive oil into a pan, then add garlic and anchovies and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the beef and cook, stirring, until it starts to brown.
- Add cornflour, then fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce and beef stock. Stir and let the mixture simmer until thickened nicely. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely.
- For the cheesy béchamel, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add the miso if you’re using it, then the flour, whisking to combine into a paste (roux). Keep whisking to cook out the raw flour for a few minutes.
- Slowly pour in the milk, whisking as you go. Keep stirring as it thickens up and starts bubbling. Add the salt, nutmeg, then all the cheese, stirring as it melts into the sauce. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- Once your fillings are cool, assemble the pies. I like using a muffin tin for mini party pies, but you can use larger pie dishes or make one big pie too. Lay one sheet of pastry over the tin and gently press the pastry down into the holes. Add about a heaped spoonful of the beef.
- Then top with a couple of teaspoons of the cheesy béchamel. Remember not to overfill your pies. The filling will bubble up as it cooks in the oven, and if the pies are too full, you risk the filling spilling out.
- Brush the pastry edges with a little egg wash to help the top layer stick. Lay another sheet of pastry over the filled pies and press down to seal. I like to use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut out the excess pastry to form the pastry lids.
- Remove the excess pastry, then seal the edges of the pies using the back of a fork. Brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash again, then pierce them with a fork so they have space to vent while cooking.
- Bake until the pies are golden and crispy on all sides. Let them sit briefly in the tin before carefully removing them and placing them on a wire rack.
- I like to do this with a butter knife. You’ll find they’ll pop out quite easily if they’re cooked through – the pastry will be crispy and should release easily. Enjoy while hot and gooey, with tomato sauce on the side for dunking.
Kate’s Three Top Tips for Making the Best Mince and Cheese Pies
- You need to cook the beef mince down until you’ve got a very thick gravy. It shouldn’t be runny at all, or it can leak out of the pastry in the oven.
- Use cheesy béchamel rather than grated cheese. This is my twist on the classic. It gives you a gorgeously creamy, oozy cheesy layer in every bite.
- Make sure both the mince and the béchamel are COLD when you assemble your pies. Warm fillings soften the pastry and make assembly trickier. I often make them the day before if I’m organised enough, but you’ll need to pop them in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to cool completely.
Mince and Cheese Pie FAQs
Yes! I personally LOVE the creamy layer bechamel gives these, but if you want to skip it, you can use grated or thin slices of cheddar.
Yes! They freeze really well after being cooked. Let them cool completely, then freeze in an airtight container or ziplock freezer bags. You can cook them from frozen for 20 to 25 minutes at 160°C fan/180°C/350°F.
You could also form the pies, cover them tightly with cling film, and freeze them pre-baking in their tray. Then just bake from frozen for about 40 minutes at 180°C fan/200°C or 400°F conventional.
This helps keep the pastry cold, so it doesn’t go soggy and sad in the oven.
If you add hot fillings to cold pastry, the pastry heats up too much and won’t crisp up as it bakes. This is especially important when you’re making mini party pies because you need the bases to be crispy and hold up (so that people can easily eat the pies with one hand).
You most likely overfilled them – I have done this before! They’ll still taste great, but it is super annoying after all that work.
Try to leave a little space at the top of the pies before you seal them, to account for bubbling up and rising.
It could also be because the lid of the pastry wasn’t sealed properly to the base. Make sure you use an egg wash around the rim of the pastry and press down firmly with a fork to seal them. And make sure you pierce the lids of the pies so there’s somewhere for the steam to go.
Yes, you can. Make both fillings the day before you’d like to bake them (it’s a great way to break up the work). Store the beef and bechamel separately in the fridge, then assemble the pies when they’re completely cold.
You can also bake the pies, then reheat them easily if you’re serving them for a party. Reheat them in the oven at 160°C fan/180°C/350°F for about 15 minutes, until the pastry is nice and crispy, and the filling is piping hot. If you find the pastry browns too quickly, loosely cover with foil.
Like this recipe? Try these New Zealand favorites next
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day 😊.
New Zealand Mince and Cheese Pies
Ingredients
Method
- Soften the onion and garlic.Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the diced onion and ½ teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes, until starting to soften. Add the crushed garlic and 2 anchovies. Stir, letting the anchovies melt into the oil, for a couple of minutes
- Brown the beef.Add the beef mince and cook, stirring, until browned, breaking it up with your spoon or spatula as it does.
- Thicken the filling. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cornflour over the beef, and mix it through. Add 1 teaspoon fish sauce, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, and 350ml of beef stock. Stir, then bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, until thickened nicely. You want it to be like a really thick gravy, and not liquidy at all. Keep simmering if it's still a bit runny. If it's too runny, it can leak out of the pastry in the oven. Remove from the heat.
- Start the cheesy béchamel.Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add 2 teaspoons of white miso paste if you're using it. Add 2 tablespoons of flour, whisking to combine into a paste (roux), and keep whisking to cook out the raw flour for a couple of minutes.
- Add the milk and cheese. Turn the heat to low and slowly pour in the milk, whisking as you go. It'll thicken, then thin as you keep whisking. Keep stirring as it thickens and starts bubbling gently. It should end up like a very thick gravy. Add the salt and nutmeg, then all the cheese, stirring as it melts into the sauce.Taste, and add a little more salt if needed (this will depend on how salty your cheese is). Remove from the heat and let cool, then transfer to the fridge to cool completely.
- Prepare the oven and tin.When you're ready to cook your pies, get your oven heating to 200°C fanbake (400°F) and grease your muffin tin (or pie dish) with butter.
- Prepare the pastry.There are a couple of ways to assemble your pies. You can take a whole sheet of pastry and lay it over the tin, then push it into the tin, or you can cut out rounds and line the tin that way. I normally use a whole sheet of pastry because it's quicker! Whichever way you choose, make sure you press the pastry firmly into the bottom and sides of the tin, and that there is an overlap of pastry over the top of each hole, so that the top has something to stick to.
- Fill the pies.Spoon about 1 ½ tablespoons of the beef filling into each pastry case, then top with about 2 teaspoons of the cheesy sauce.The key here is not to overfill your pies (I have done this so many times and it's VERY sad when they explode in the oven).The filling will bubble up inside the pastry, so you need to leave a little room and make sure your pastry lid is sealed really well.
- Egg wash and seal the pies.Whisk your egg in a bowl with a fork, then brush the whisked egg around the edges of the pastry. This helps the pastry lids stick. Lay the second sheet of pastry over the pies, pressing down firmly to seal the edges.Use the edge of a large glass, or a cookie cutter, to trim the excess pastry by pressing down around the edge of each pie. Seal the edges of each pie by pressing the edges with the back of a fork. Brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash again, then pierce each lid with a fork to create space to let steam escape during baking.
- Bake the pies.Transfer the tin to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until golden all around and super crispy. Let them cool for a few minutes in the tin before carefully removing each pie and placing them on a wire rack. Enjoy while hot with a good tomato sauce on the side.
Wow, these were fantastic! I made them for my wife after looking through quite a few New Zealand-style meat pie recipes online. This one sounded the most appealing, and it definitely did not disappoint. We had them with the family around a campfire, and they were a huge hit! Rich, savory, and absolutely delicious.
One small note for the author: miso paste is mentioned as an optional ingredient in the recipe description, but I couldn’t find it mentioned anywhere in the actual recipe or instructions. I wasn’t sure how much to use or when to add it, so I just left it out.
Honestly, they were so good without the miso that we didn’t miss it at all. Definitely a recipe I’ll be making again, and I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from this author!
Hi Stephen! This has made me SO HAPPY. I’m so pleased you loved them so much – enjoying them around a campfire sounds like an absolute dream 😍 And thank you for flagging that the miso paste was missing from the ingredients – I’ve edited the recipe and added it where it should be. It’s just an addition to the cheese sauce, but it’s great to hear they worked so well without it anyway. Thank you so much again for your lovely review xx Kate