Mini Mince and Cheese Pies

For our High Tea Picnic we each decided to bring something sweet and something savoury.  For my savoury option I had a go at making little mince and cheese pies.  There were a lot easier than I thought they would be too!  These pies are a great idea for a picnic, something different for lunch or individual dinners.  I made 10 mini pies for our picnic and used up the remaining mince mixture by making larger pies for dinner using some ramekins (see picture below).  For my smaller pies, I used some cute little tins, but I have written the recipe below so that you can make them just using a muffin tin.  If you want to make your pies so they stand on their own out of the tins for a while, you may want to change the pastry base to a shortcrust pastry and pre-bake it before putting the filling in, or you could make some pastry from the recipe I used to make Pork Pies out of.  I would still top them with puff pastry to give them a nice flaky pastry lid.

Makes at least 20 small savoury pies, or 8 ramekin sized pies.

Ingredients:
500g mince
½ onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely grated
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
2 cups beef stock
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
5 – 7 sheets puff pastry
Colby cheese, thinly sliced (enough to cover the top of each pie)
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk

Method:
In a frying pan over medium heat, cook the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.  Add the mince and carrot, frying until the mince is browned.
Add the Worcestershire sauce, flour, mixed herbs, stock, tomato sauce and salt and pepper, and stir through the mince.  Reduce the frying pan to a low heat and cook the mince mixture, simmering, for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove the mince from the frying pan and leave to cool (you can refrigerate it if you want).
Preheat the oven to 200°C. 
Grease 20 muffin tin holes (or 8 cup-sized ramekins) with butter and line each with pastry. Cut  circles out of the pastry, big enough to cover each pie.
Spoon the mince mixture into each pie case and top with slices of cheese.  Add the pie tops over each pie and sea around the edges using a fork.  Whisk the egg and milk together and brush over each pie top.  Using a knife, pierce a hole into the top of each pie.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden.  Leave to cool for 5 minutes before serving.