Main Question:
When cooking the beef stew portion of the Australian Meat (Chunky steak) Pie recipe, the created sauce/gravy 'disappears' after cooling or freezing.
How can one prevent this from happening?
When the pie is baked directly after the stew has been completed, the pie has (almost) the desired amount of sauce/gravy.
 after stew has been cooked |
 image from recipe (how it is supposed to look like) |
 5" pie after baking directly, after cooking the stew |
The crust (both the base and top) a is Puff pastry and the base has been pre-baked and allowed to cool before filling.
But when reheated later, there is no sauce/gravy
- 180°C (355°F) [160°C Fan] / Gas 3 for 15-25 minutes
When the cooked filling is allowed to set for a day (in a second attempt) in the refrigerator, the gravy is no longer fluid but more of a mass between the meat chunks. So this seems also to happen before the pie is filled.
I have been told by a Canadian friend than when a store bought pie, that is not in a tin, is warmed up does contain gravy/sauce.
Secondary Question:
Sources:
