Greggs’ steak bakes

Name: Greggs Steak bakes
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 450 g rump steak; 300 ml beef stock; 1 teaspoon cornflour; 1 egg; 1 sheet puff pastry

Steak bakes are a Greggs icon – diced beef in a tasty gravy, all wrapped in golden puff pastry. With this easy recipe and step by step instructions, they’re simple enough to recreate at home.

Steak bakes, are a great, simple lunchtime classic. If you’ve ever been into Greggs the baker, you’ll have seen these. After their famous sausage rolls, steak bakes are a Greggs icon but they’re actually very easy to recreate at home.

What is a steak bake?

They’re a savoury pastry filled with diced beef and a simple but delicious gravy. With only a few ingredients, they really are easy enough for kids to make and enjoy.

How can kids help to make Steak Bakes?

This easy recipe is simple enough for kids to help with. If they’re old enough to use a sharp knife they can help dice the beef into small chunks. This is a way of practising knife skills as it doesn’t matter if they’re not all cut to exactly the same size.

Once you’ve cut the beef, older children can help to cook it and make the gravy. If you’ve got younger children who you don’t want around knives or cookers, they can help form the steak bakes themselves. It’s a simple job of cutting the pastry into rectangles (an excellent maths lesson in fractions), before adding the beef and forming the pasties.

What beef should I use?

When Greggs released the recipe for their steak bakes in 2020, they didn’t specify which cut of beef to use. We tried with rump steak and they worked well. 2 x 225g beef steaks makes 4 bakes, but you could use 1 steak if 2 bakes is enough for you.

What kind of stock should I use?

We just used a beef stock cube mixed with boiling water, but you could use a stock pot or even some pre-made beef stock.

Can you freeze steak bakes?

Yes. Once you’ve made them, but before you bake them pop them in the freezer overnight on their baking trays. You can then wrap them in cling film or pop them in freezer bags for up to a few months.

To cook them from frozen, follow the instructions below but cook them for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Useful equipment

You might need some of the following equipment to make these steak bakes:

Chopping board
Baking tray
Pastry brush

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Ingredients

450g rump steak
300ml beef stock
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 egg
1 sheet puff pastry

How to make a Greggs’ steak bake

Preheat your oven to 200C / 180C Fan /390F and line a baking tray with baking or parchment paper.

Cook the beef

Finely dice the beef. If your kids are old enough to use a sharp knife they can help, cut it into small, (approximately 1cm) square pieces.

Heat a little oil in a pan, then cook the beef on a medium heat until it has browned. Your kids can help by stirring the beef so it doesn’t stick and browns evenly on all sides.

Make the gravy

Get your kids to carefully pour the stock into your pan. Leave it to cook. Meanwhile, get your kids to mix the cornflour with a little bit of water so it forms a paste. Add it to your pan, and leave it for 5-10 minutes to thicken.

Once it has thickened into a nice sauce, take it off the heat and leave it to cool.

Prepare the puff pastry

Roll out the puff pastry. If you’re using a ready rolled sheet, this is an easy job. If you’ve made your own or have a block of puff pastry, get your kids to roll it out to a rectangle roughly 5mm thick (about 35cm x 23cm wide).

Cut the of puff pastry into 8 even rectangles. We found the easiest way was to cut ours in half down the middle lengthways, then in the middle width ways, then cut each quarter in half once more widthways (see picture). This is a great lesson in fractions/dividing for kids!

Place four rectangles of puff pastry onto your prepared baking tray.

Make the steak bakes

Get your kids to divide the beef mixture among the centre of four of your rectangles, making sure to leave a border around the edges.

Crack the egg into a small bowl and get your kids to give it a little whisk. Brush it around the edges of the pastry rectangles.

Carefully place the remaining rectangles of puff pastry on top of the beef rectangles. Then get your kids to gently press down the edges, before pressing down with a fork to fully seal the edges.

Using a sharp knife, cut slashes diagonally into the top of each steak bake. Do this gently, being sure not to go all the way through (it’s probably a job for a grown up).

Finally, brush the top of each puff pastry with the remainder of the whisked egg.

Bake the steak bakes

Bake the steak bakes in the oven for 20-25 minutes until they have turned a nice golden brown colour and the meat should be piping hot.

Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes, before serving.

Serve and enjoy.