Baking Friday - Pie # 3

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, so this is our last entry for baking ideas inspired by the patron saint himself.  Or at least inspired by his home country.  And yes, I am aware that this isn't a Friday.

I gotta tell ya.  I had this post “done” to publish Thursday night, a day early for a Friday Baking post.  And even a pie for Pi Day!  A double whammy!!!  But when I hit the Publish button, it didn’t.  And it actually only saved about half of it – the half without the recipe and all of the pictures!  And by that point it was 11pm, and I still had to finish up this cake to bring into work Friday for a bridal shower….

…so needless to say, I got a bit (or a lot!) frustrated, went to work on the cake, and went to bed sometime after midnight-30.

And you know the real shame of it all?  I was super excited about posting this one!  Like I had exclamation points all over the opening paragraphs!  Like this!  And this!!!  And even this!!!

Is that enough???!!!  NO?!  Ok!!!!!  Here are a few more!!!!!

Are you laughing at me yet?  

If so, that's great - cause now you've laughed for the day!  If not, please do, cause you probably need a laugh for the day!  I am sure St. Pat would agree!!

Ok, the excitement is starting to come back!!!

I am excited about two things in the post.  First is this Irish Soda Bread - which isn't the primary focus of today’s post since this is clearly a BREAD and our focus is PIE - but it's tasty, soft Irish Soda Bread, so I'm excited to share it with you!

I used this Irish Soda Bread recipe from the King Arthur Flour website.  It is one of many on their site, but it has so many positive comments, I thought I'd try it.  And besides, even if it was as dry and tasteless as sand in my mouth (like I've found other Irish soda breads to be) I had gravy on hand to soak it with flavor.  (More on that later!)  I didn't take pics of what I did, but it's a very easy recipe.  I followed the recipe as written but with a few minor changes:

• I substituted 1/2 cup of the White Wheat Flour with 1/2 cup of cake flour
• I mixed in 5 1/2 T. of buttermilk powder in the dry ingredients (so used 1 1/3 cups of water) instead of liquid buttermilk
• I added a splash of vanilla.  Cause I like vanilla!
• I used a food processor for everything except the raisins, which I kneaded in by hand at the end after tossing in some of the flour
• I used 2 T. of melted butter - cause why not, right?

I will share two comments on this bread and then we will move on to the real focus of today's post - 

• From my Irish/English native friend - "It wasn't my grandmother's, but it was quite good."  (I'll take that as high praise indeed.  Grandmother Memories are sacrosanct after all.) 
• And from my literary wordsmith extraordinaire that I have quoted oft before - "This is the first Irish soda bread I have had, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I found the texture really good, perfect complement to the Shepherd’s pie.  I was afraid the raisins might be a little sweet, but it was just enough to give the bread a light flavor.  I thought it would be really good as leftovers fried with a little butter and warm honey drizzled over it for a breakfast dish, with a nice cup of Irish Coffee of course."   I tell ya, this lady has a way with words and appreciates food.  I think she would move in with us if we had room.

And now for the other recipe I'm excited to share!  This pie!  

Uh, Deb?  That doesn't look like a pie.

Oh, but it is, my friend!  See the pottery pie plate?  And it's very Irish!!

But Deb.  There's no pie crust.  There's no fruit.  There's no sugar.  And there's no green shamrocks anywhere.

Yes, ok, so all of those things are true, but it's still a pie!  And it uses Ireland's famous dark stout, so it's Irish!

Ever heard of a Shepherd's Pie?  Now according to my Irish/English native friend, this is a Cottage Pie and not a Shepherd's Pie, because this uses beef and not lamb.  True Shepherd's Pies use lamb as the meat.  

So call it Shepherd's Pie or Cottage Pie, but don't forget the Guinness, whatever you call it!  

This stuff really is yummy, folks!  If social media talk about something is the new way to measure if it is a hit or not, this one is!  I honestly wasn't sure how this would go over with folks at work, but here's a glimpse of what folks thought...

WARNING: May induce gluttony, followed by a warm euphoria and a tendency to nap.

Agreed ! Delicious … I could totally use a nap right about now.

If you should come to my area and my head is on my keyboard, you’ll know why.

Everyone will be drunk by 10am....! (This from my boss's boss...ahem...)

One man reasoned it this way....the Shepherds eat this pie, take a nap, and the sheep are taken?  The Sheep Get Stolen Pie.  (Now there's a name for ya!)

Deb, I think you can counter the negative effects listed in this email chain by incorporating Red Bull in your next recipe.  (Hmmm...that means I would have to drink one of these, and I've never done that...yet...uh, yet?)

Between the Guinness and the nap references, I was pretty sure I was going to be called into HR on Thursday...and hey!  Someone was already claiming my desk!

A few more comments from my taste testers about this pie and then I'll share the recipe.  

I just love the smoky flavor to it and also the texture of the carrots and peas, just perfect ! Thank you for sharing, looking forward to trying this recipe.  Delicious !!

Most shepherds pie that I have had just tasted like leftovers with mashed potatoes stuck on top and tossed in the oven.  Besides the presentation, this had depths of flavor and your vegetables were cooked perfectly, and I enjoyed the potatoes having more of a twice baked texture than just a blob of potatoes.   

So here's the recipe!  You can do this!  It isn't hard, and it really is quite delicious!  I served it with some Guinness brown gravy on the side, so folks would have something to dip their Irish soda bread in, but the pie is juicy enough and this soda bread recipe is soft enough that while the gravy is quite tasty, it isn't altogether necessary.  But then really, how often is gravy really "necessary"?  Hmmm....I'll have to think about that another day....  

But here is what I did to make Guinness Shepherd’s/Cottage/The Sheep Get Stolen Pie!

The Meat Mixture

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. olive oil

1 T. butter

2 lbs. ground beef

I sauteed the onion and garlic in the olive oil and butter until a bit tender and then browned the ground beef.

Then I added:

3 diced carrots

3 T. flour

I cooked those for a couple of minutes to just start giving the carrots a hint of color and cook the flour.  Next I added the rest of the meat mixture ingredients and cooked it until the carrots are almost done and it thickened a bit with a nice gravy.

½ can of Guinness (about 1 cup) (I saved the rest of the can to use in the gravy; if you’re not making the gravy…uh…Black and Tan anyone?)

2 cups beef broth

1/3 c. parsley (fresh) or 3 - 4 T. dried parsley

1 t. thyme

½ t. sage

1 t. marjoram

¼ c. A1 steak sauce

1/3 c. Rotel canned tomatoes

½ oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (yes, that’s right, chocolate…just a touch!)

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. Worstershire sauce

Salt, seasoned salt, pepper (to taste)

This amount made enough for G and I to share a half pie for dinner Wednesday night, a full pie to bring into work and another half pie to put in the freezer for a quick meal at a later date.  I would say then that it makes a total of about 8 – 12 servings, give or take?

The last step for the meat mixture was to take about ¾ cup of peas and scatter them among the half pie for G and I, the full pie for work, and the remainder for the freezer. 

Then I laid the meat mixture over the peas to help them thaw just a bit while I finished up the garlic mashed potatoes portion.

The Garlic Mashed Potatoes
3 lbs. russet potatoes
3 cloves garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1 t. salt
5 t. butter
1/4 cup half-n-half
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese (any mild yellow cheese will be tasty!)
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese (again, any mild white cheese will be tasty!)

I peeled and diced the potatoes and peeled the garlic cloves, cooking both in the salted chicken broth until the potatoes were tender.  I did not drain, but simply mashed the whole batch with the butter and half-n-half until smooth.  This was a bit of a loose mashed potato since I was planning to pipe it onto the larger pie.

The Guinness Brown Gravy

4 T. butter

4 T. flour

½ can Guinness (about 1 cup)

2 c. beef broth

1 c.water

2 T. A1 Steak Sauce

2 t. Worstershire sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

This was just the standard gravy steps - forming a roux of the melted butter and flour, cooking it for a minute or so to cook the flour and then adding the remaining ingredients and cooking until desired consistency.

I simply piled the potatoes on the small one for G and I, and baked it at 375 for 20 minutes.  I then added the cheese to the top and baked another 20 - 25 minutes until browned and bubbly.  (And trust me...a cookie sheet underneath is strongly encouraged unless you enjoy cleaning your oven...not that I'm speaking from experience or anything here...)

For the larger pie, I piped the potatoes on top and then set it in the fridge overnight.  So this is a good do-ahead recipe, if needed.  These steps can all be done ahead and then baked before serving.  I added some baking time (about 10 minutes total) and increased the temperature to 400 degrees since it started out cold, but otherwise the baking steps were the same.  I was told that this was the prettiest Shepherds/Cottage/The Sheep Get Stolen Pie some had ever seen!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  I hope you've enjoyed our St. Patty's Day baking ventures and found something to inspire you to baking for your family and friends!

Hope you can join us for our Easter ventures, beginning with our bread this coming Friday - or as soon as possible thereafter if I run into publishing issues again!  Thanks for stopping by!