If you are looking for Halloween dinner ideas for kids of the whole family, these Savoury Mini Halloween Pies will go down a spooky treat! With a crumbly shortcrust pastry case and a beef mince and hidden vegetable filling, even fussy eaters will love them. Enjoy them smothered in beef gravy and served with potatoes, and a vegetable side too if you like. Or serve them on their own for a light Halloween dinner before the trick-or-treating gets under way!
To keep this recipe as easy as possible, I've used shortcrust pastry sheets and Jack o'lantern cookie cutters to create the faces. You can buy the cutters on Amazon, or you could just use a sharp kitchen knife and create your own face designs.
If you were looking for Halloween dinner ideas for toddlers, these savoury mini jack o'lantern pies can be shared with little ones, and even weaning babies. Read more about adapting these Halloween hand pies for your family >
How to serve these Savoury Mini Halloween Pies
If you really want to go all out with Halloween theming, serve these mini Halloween pies with orange and green coloured side dishes. For potatoes, you could make an orange coloured mash. To do this just boil your potatoes along with thick slices of carrot and then mash it all together as normal. I would go with a green vegetable to round it off, so peas or broccoli, whatever your family prefers.
If you are looking for pies for a party, a grazing board or just a picky dinner, you can serve them on their own. I would recommend putting a jug of gravy alongside still, to take these mini pies to the next level of flavour.
What Equipment you will need to make these Savoury Mini Halloween Pies
You will need a few special equipment items to make these mini jack o'lantern pies:
- A food processor or a blender for the filling
- 12 hole muffin tray
- A circular cookie cutters; one that's 4-4 ½ inches in diameter and another that is 3 - 3 ½ inches
- Jack o'lantern / pumpkin cookie cutters OR a sharp pairing knife to make the faces by hand
FAQ's for My Savoury Mini Halloween Pies
What type of pastry do I need?
We're going to be using shortcrust pastry sheets (pie crusts US) to make these Savoury Mini Halloween Pies. You will need either 3 regular 320g ready rolled sheets, or 2 large 475g sheets (or 2 x 14.1oz ready to bake pie crusts US). Then using a 4 inch cookie cutter, you'll be able to make 10 pies using two large pastry sheets, and 11 pies using 3 regular pastry sheets. If you are willing to combine the large pastry sheets scraps and roll them out, you should be able to make 11 pies.
What cutters will I need to make these Savoury Mini Halloween Pies?
You will need circular cookie cutters to make the pastry base and top. If you have a set of cookie cutters with different sizes, it should have everything that you need. To make the pastry base your need one that is around 4-4 ½ inches, and for the top you'll need one that is around 2 ½- 3 inches. You can create the pumpkin eye and mouth cut-outs by hand using a sharp kitchen knife, or use Jack o'lantern cookie cutters to create the faces.
Is it hard to make the faces with a knife instead of cutters?
It's not particularly hard, but it will be more time consuming to make the eye and mouth cut-outs with a knife. So if you feel like getting your creative juices flowing, go for it! You will need to use a small sharp kitchen knife, like a pairing knife.
It doesn't say to egg wash the pastry, is that right?
Yes the reason I have not said to egg wash the pastry tops is because the pastry will go very dark and may look burnt in places (I have tested it). Visually, they look better without an egg wash.
Can I prepare these Savoury Mini Halloween Pies in advance?
Yes, you can certainly make these pies earlier in the day, or even the day before, and then refrigerate the muffin tray with the pies in (covered with clingfilm/plastic wrap), until about 1 hour before you're ready to cook and then take them out of the fridge to get up to room temperature. When you cook them, they will probably need the full 35 minutes at least.
Can I feed more people with this recipe?
Yes you can double the recipe easily, but you will need two 12-hole muffin trays to do so.
Can I serve these as part of a Halloween spread?
If you are looking for pies for a party, a grazing board or just a picky dinner, you can serve them on their own. I would recommend serving them hot and putting a jug of gravy alongside stil for people to add it if they want.
How can younger children help make them?
If you are using cookie cutters, the kids will absolutely love to cut out the Jack-o'-lantern faces - it will be a fun Halloween activity for them!
Can I Store Savoury Mini Halloween Pies leftovers?
You can store any Savoury Mini Halloween Pies leftovers in an air-tight container or resealable food bag in the fridge for up to 3 days (cook day + 2). Leftovers can also be frozen, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and reheat in the oven.
To reheat; preheat the oven to 170ºc/150ºc fan/325ºf/gas 3 and place the pies on a on baking tray/sheet pan with foil laid over and loosely tucked in around the pies, to stop the pastry burning. Cook for 18-20 mins. You can use a food thermometer to check the meat is steaming hot through an eye or mouth. The temperature should be 75ºc/167ºf or over. Otherwise cut one in half to check.
More on safe food storage and reheating.
What diets is this recipe suitable for?
My Savoury Mini Halloween Pies are dairy, egg and nut-free. They are NOT suitable for gluten-free diets, vegetarians or vegans.
Adapting My Savoury Mini Halloween Pies For Your Family
Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this Savoury Mini Halloween Pies recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, which will help make it easier to eat together as a family.
Keeping Fussy Eaters Happy
These hidden vegetable pies are ideal if you have a picky eater who doesn't like vegetables as you can't really see them or taste them.
Making My Savoury Mini Halloween Pies Suitable for Baby Weaning
If you are sharing with a weaning baby or toddler, you can use low or no salt stock and don't add any salt to the beef mix. You could fill their pie(s) then stir salt through the beef mixture for everyone else, but you'll need to make sure you know which pie(s) are theirs once cooked.
How to Serve to Babies & Toddlers
BABY-LED WEANING
Scoop the filling out of one of the pies, add that to their plate and help to spoon feed it. You can give them the pastry top to eat with their hands. You can serve the pies with mash potato and broccoli trees too if you like.
SPOON FED-WEANING
6 MONTHS
Transfer their meat filling into your stick blender pot or food chopper (if you have that one that purées), along with some roughly chopped potatoes and vegetables, if serving. Add a little warm boiled water or stock and whizz into purée.
7-9 MONTHS
Scoop out the meat filling and mix with some mash potato. Or transfer to your food chopper, along with some potato and vegetables, if serving. Pulse gradually until a lumpy, chopped consistency. Add a little warm boiled water or stock if needed.
10-12 MONTHS
Spoon out the meat filling and put it on their plate, along with mash potato. Then finely crumble over the pastry top.
1 YEAR +
Using a sharp knife chop their pie into bitesize pieces.
I've also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook.
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Savoury Mini Halloween Pies
Equipment
- Food processor or blender
- Muffin tin
- Circular cookie cutters , 1 x 4-4 ½ inch in diameter + 1 x 2 ½ - 3 inch
- Jack-o-lantern cookie cutters or sharp knife
Ingredients
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 3 x 320g regular OR 2 large 475g ready rolled shortcrust pastry sheets (US 2 x 14.1oz pie crusts)
- 250 g beef mince (US ground)
- 1 small onion or ½ large roughly diced
- 1 medium-small carrot peeled and sliced
- ½ red pepper roughly diced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- ½ tablespoon tomato puree (US dbl concentrate tomato paste)
- ½ beef stock cube
- 180 ml cups hot water
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon plain flour (US all-purpose)
- ½ tablespoon fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried
- Salt & pepper to taste
TO SERVE
- Beef gravy
- A potato side and a veg side, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220ºc/200ºc fan/425ºf/gas mark 7. Grease a 12-hole muffin tray. Take the pastry out the fridge before making, see packet instructions.
- Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add the oil. Add the beef and break up any chunks with your cooking spoon. Add the onion, carrot and pepper and fry for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and cook for 1 further minute. Then transfer the beef mixture to your food processor or blender and whizz until finely chopped.
- Add the mixture back into the frying pan and over a low heat, stir in the flour well. Then crumble in the half a stock cube, pour in the water, add the tomato puree (or paste), Worcestershire sauce, thyme and salt & pepper. Stir in well and bring to a simmer briefly, then turn the heat off, cover and set aside.
- Roll out the pastry sheets. Use the 4 inch cookie cutter to cut out 10 circles if using 2 large pastry sheets and 11 if using 3 regular sheets. Note you can get 11 pies out of the large pastry sheets if you combine and roll out the scraps of pastry. One by one lay the circles into your greased muffin tin and using your fingers work your way round the edge of each pastry case bottom to press out any kinks of pastry and have it line the cups properly (see video near top of page). Transfer the tray to the fridge.
- Then using a 2 ½ - 3 inch cookie cutter, cut out smaller circles for the pastry case tops. Then, using Jack-o'-Lantern face cutters OR a sharp knife, cut out eyes and mouths in the middle each pastry top.
- Once those are done, take the muffin tray out the fridge and spoon in your beef filling. Fill each pastry case almost up to the top and level out. Then carefully add one pastry face to the top of each pie. Then work your way around each one, gently pressing the edges of each top against the edges of the bottom case use your fingertips to smooth out where the pastry where it's gone bumpy.
- Transfer to the top of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden and pastry is cooked through. As soon as you take the pies out, use a turner to gently press the pie tops down as they probably won't be securely attached to the bottom pastry case. Leave for 5 minutes then take each pie out carefully, use a knife to help you lever them out if needed.
Baby & Toddler
STORAGE
Nutrition
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