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Delicious, tender, juicy roast covered in pate and mushrooms and baked in a perfect flaky, buttery puff pastry.
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
Puff Pastry Baked Beef Roast with Pate and Mushroom Duxelle
Beef Wellington is a traditional classic British dish – of steak or roast, covered in pate and chopped mushrooms, cozied up in a flaky, buttery layer of puff pastry and baked to perfection! It’s a perfect main dish for Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving, or New Years – but is hearty and delicious enough, you’ll want it for a Sunday supper.
One of my favorite parts of Beef Wellington is that it *looks* like it took all day – it is a dish with a reputation for being fussy, but it’s actually quite easy to make, even if you’re a beginner cook!
To start, we will chop mushrooms and a shallot to make a duxelle – which is just a fancy term for diced mushrooms with onions. Then we will sear the roast, as we lay out puff pastry, spread a thin layer of pate (or a pate substitute) on puff pastry, top with mushroom duxelle, and place the browned roast on top. Fold it together, give it a little egg bath, and bake to golden brown!
Serve with some Easy Eggnog, a Sparkling Cranberry Punch, or some Traditional French Vin Chaud (Mulled Wine) – and get to celebrating!
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!
How to Make Beef Wellington
- Puff Pastry – Puff pastry is a laminated dough that is made from folding butter into flour, rolled thin, folded over, and re-rolled. This process creates an incredibly delicious and flaky pastry crust. I used pre-made sheets, but if you’re adventurous try making it yourself.
- Beef Roast – Wellington is traditionally made with an eye of round roast since that cut mimics the shape of the famous boot – hence the name. Many fancier establishments use beef tenderloin. Whole beef tenderloins are delicious but quite expensive. I used an eye of round roast.
- Duck Live Pate – Pate is a “forcemeat” made of duck, duck livers, herbs, fat, spices, and brandy or cognac and cooked in a terrine. You can find pre-made packages in the deli section of most large supermarkets.
- Cremini Mushrooms – Cremini Mushrooms are the brown version of the white button mushrooms more commonly found.
- Shallot – Shallots are from the allium family and are cousins of onions. They’re
- Chives – Chives are also from the allium family. We eat the scape or leaf of the chive, and they have a milder flavor than an onion. Chives are often used in duxelles, such as the mushroom mixture in this dish.
- Butter – Butter adds a ton of flavor to the mushroom duxelle, and the fat helps the mushrooms brown.
- Olive Oil – Olive oil brings a great nutty flavor and mixes well with the butter in the mushrooms.
- Garlic – Another member of the allium family, garlic’s earthy and sharp flavors go amazingly well with mushrooms.
- Egg – The key to a deep, golden brown pastry crust is brushing the outside with egg wash – a beaten egg with a little bit of water or milk.
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, we will use the following method:
- Prepare your duxelle. A duxelle is just a cooked paste of mushrooms, onions, herbs and spices. Cut up your mushrooms, shallots and garlic and saute them in a pan with butter and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and chives. Cook under medium-low heat until soft and slightly brown. Set aside to cool.
- Sear meat. Bring your meat to room temperature, and trim off excess fat and trim to a uniform shape. In a hot pan, brown all sides of the roast in olive oil. Set aside to cool.
- Roll out the dough and assemble. On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough into a rectangle, slightly larger than enough to completely cover the the roast. Spread room-temperature pate on the dough in the footprint of the roast. On top of the pate, even spread out the mushroom duxelle. Place the roast upside down on the pasty in the middle of the spread out pate and duxelle. Fold the pastry to cover the
- Bake and enjoy!
Tips and Tricks to Perfect Easy Beef Wellington:
Sear roast before cooking. Searing your roast before coating in pate and duxelle, then wrapping in puff pastry, helps to give extra color and flavor to your roast by adding caramelization and tons of rich, meaty flavor without adding more ingredients.
Know your temperatures. The following temperatures will tell you how done your beef Wellington is after a 10 minute rest period after baking (as the Wellington will continue to cook 10 degrees after removing from the oven.)
- Medium rare – 130-135 degrees
- Medium – 140-145 degrees
- Medium Well – 145-150 degrees
- Well Done – 150 degrees+
My Pro Tip
Recipe Tip
Always use a high-quality meat thermometer when cooking to be sure you have the perfect doneness for your beef Wellington!
The temperature below shows when to REMOVE meat – it will cook another 10 degrees while tented with foil.
- For medium rare beef Wellington, the in-oven temperature should be 120 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit when removing from the oven.
- For medium beef Wellington, the in-oven temperature should be 130 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit when removing from the oven.
- For well done Beef Wellington, the in-oven temperature should be 140 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can adjust your cook time based on those temperatures – and remember the sides will be closer to well done while the middle will be much more red/pink – so you can still serve everyone a slice they prefer.
FAQs:
For medium rare beef Wellington, cook to 125 degrees F.
Beef Wellington is medium rare at 135 degrees, which in our opinion, is the perfect temperature – however, that is the finished temperature for beef Wellington. Since roasts are so large, they tend to carryover cook quite a bit after removing from oven. To get perfect medium rare, you actually need to cook to 125 degrees – so it can carryover cook to 135 as it rests.
If you’re looking for a different doneness, use the guide below:
125 degrees – medium rare
140 degrees – medium
150 degrees – well done
A duxelle is just a mixture of finely chopped mushrooms and onions or shallots, as well as other aromatics, used to flavor dishes.
If you’re not a fan of pate, you can use just the mushroom duxelle (I’ll make a bit extra and blend some to get a texture similar to a pate, then coat with the rest of the duxelle – as I like the texture difference with a bit of chopped mushrooms and smooth pate-like flavor); vegetarian pate, tuna pate, or even parma ham!
What to Serve With Beef Wellington
We love serving Beef Wellington with vegetables – like roasted asparagus, roasted parsnips, stuffed acorn squash, or green bean casserole!
Beef Wellington is also delicious with broiled lobster tail for a holiday dinner – there is nothing more impressive, and only you will know it didn’t take you forever!
We love serving beef Wellington with our soft and buttery parker house style rolls, or delicious light and fluffy yeast rolls – it’s also great with fresh baked no-knead bread!
Easy Beef Wellington Recipe
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Beef Wellington
Ingredients
- 1 Package puff pastry
- 1 eye of round beef roast or similar beef roast
- 6 oz package of duck liver pate
- 6 oz cremini mushrooms
- 1 medium shallot
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of chives
- 4 garlic cloves
Instructions
- Remove your beef roast from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.
- Pre-heat your oven to 425oF
- Chop your mushrooms and finely dice the shallot and garlic cloves
- Saute the mushrooms and shallots butter and olive oil on medium-low heat until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and chives and cook until the mixture is completely soft and beginning to brown.
- In a large skillet over high heat, brown your roast on all sides with a tablespoon of olive oil. You’re trying to develop the Maillard reaction on the outside of the roast, not cook it fully.
- When all sides are browned, remove from the hot pan and allow to cool for 5-7 minutes.
- On a floured surface, roll out your puff pastry to a large rectangle, big enough to cover your roast completely.
- Beat your egg thoroughly, and set aside while you prepare the Wellington.
- Using a spoon, spread out the duck pate on the pastry in a rectangle to cover the roast.
- Spread your mushroom mixture on top of the pate.
- Place the roast, upside down on top of the pate and mushroom mixture, and begin to fold over the edges of the pastry to cover the roast. Use your fingers and a little water to crimp the pastry. Use a knife to trim off the excess pastry on the ends.
- Roll out the excess pastry and cut out three leaves or other decorative elements to place on top of your Wellington.
- Brush the fully assembled Wellington with egg wash.
- Bake in a 425oF oven for 35-45 minutes depending on the size of your roast. Your Roast is fully cooked when the pastry is golden brown and delicious and the beef has reached an internal temperature of 135oF.
- Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
