Mini Beef Wellington w/ Gorgonzola

I’ve tried many recipes for Beef Wellington over the years, some with great results and some disasters. Once you get the whole puff pastry concept down, it’s really not that hard to do and this one is one of our favorites. As a matter of fact, last night’s was so good, we realized after we finished, we forgot to save a “taste” for Fala!
I don’t make this often, usually about once a year, but it’s also a great make-ahead if you’re having company and who doesn’t love puff pastry?

Mini Beef Wellington w/ Gorgonzola

Mini Beef Wellingtons With Gorgonzola

• 8 5 ounce fillet Mignons — (1 1/2-inch-thick – but the thicker the rarer it will be after cooking)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 large mushroom — about 1/2 lb (I used pre-sliced baby bellas yesterday – worked great)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons shallots — finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 2 puff pastry sheets — thawed
• 5 ounces gorgonzola cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Pat fillets dry and season with salt and pepper. Sear on both sides in saute pan with heated oil. Chill fillets, covered, until cold, about 1 hour.

Thinly slice mushrooms and in a heavy skillet cook in butter with shallot, garlic, and salt and pepper, to taste, over moderate heat, stirring, until mushrooms are lightly browned. Transfer mushroom mixture to a bowl to cool completely. In a small bowl lightly beat eggs to make an egg wash.

On a lightly floured surface roll out puff pastry sheets into 2 (14-inch) squares. Trim edges to form 2 (13-inch) squares and cut each square into 4 (6 1/2-inch) squares (honestly, I don’t measure just do this by feel)

Put 1 tablespoon Gorgonzola in center of 1 square and top with 1/8 of the mushroom mixture. Top mushroom mixture with a fillet, pressing it down gently, and wrap 2 opposite corners of puff pastry over fillet, overlapping them. Seal seam with egg wash. Wrap remaining 2 corners of pastry over fillet and seal in same manner. Seal any gaps with egg wash and press pastry around fillet to enclose completely. Arrange beef Wellington, seam side down, in a non-stick-baking pan (I put them on a parchment lined jelly roll pan). Make 7 more beef Wellingtons in same manner. Chill remaining egg wash for brushing on pastry just before baking. Chill beef Wellingtons, loosely covered, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Sometimes I forget and don’t chill them near as long.

Brush top and sides of each beef Wellington with some remaining egg wash and bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until pastry is golden and the meat temperature is 117 degrees F (last night I baked ours for 20 minutes and Chris’s who had a really, really thick fillet was medium rare while mine was more medium well, so I might suggest, for thinner steaks, checking after 15 minutes).

I also let them rest for 5 minutes or so once they’re out of the oven.
Now, if you don’t use oil oil and butter above, but just spray your pan with Pam, this comes in at 11 Weight Watcher points.

Oh, and since there were only two of us, we had a 1/2 sheet left over of puff pastry. So I rolled it out, sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar, rolled it up lengthwise, sliced it crosswise, and baked them off at 350 for about 15 minutes (until golden). Could have used a bit more cinnamon sugar but not bad for a first attempt.

Left Over Cinnamon Swirls