Cottage pie will be tastier if you add Mary Berry's 1 simple yet unusual ingredient

A cottage pie refers to a beef layer topped with slices of potato, which is one of those easy rotation dinners that you know is going to leave everyone satisfied. However, there's a simple trick when cooking it to make it even more scrumptious. Mary Berry has shared her secret ingredient for enhancing the classic cottage pie recipe: two tablespoons of brown muscovado sugar added to the filling.

The muscovado sugar not only balances out the acidity of other ingredients in the recipe but also enriches the meaty flavour. After sharing this on her BBC television series Mary Berry Cooks, Mary explained that her straightforward recipe "elevates" the cottage pie to "new luxury levels". She stated, "This is so much smarter than your usual cottage pie and is perfect for casual supper parties too."

Mary Berry's cottage pie recipe

Ingredients

• 1.5kg of potatoes
• 900g of beef mince
• 250g of chestnut mushrooms
• 100g of cheddar cheese
• 50g of plain flour
• Two onions
• 300ml of beef stock
• 250ml of red wine
• 150ml of double cream
• One tablespoon of chopped thyme
• Two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
• Two tablespoons of light muscovado sugar
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Method

Start by heating one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and adding the beef mince. Cook on high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up the beef until it turns a golden brown colour.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the mince from the pan and set it aside. Add the onions and celery until they soften, then reintroduce the beef mince to the pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and red wine until you achieve a smooth paste. Stir in the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce, then add this mixture to the pan.

Next, incorporate the muscovado sugar and thyme into the pan, then bring the mixture to a boil. Keep stirring until the sauce has thickened.

Introduce the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and let it simmer for 45 minutes or until the mince is cooked and tender.

About five minutes before the beef mixture is done simmering, add the potato slices to a pot of boiling salted water. Cook for approximately four to five minutes until the potatoes are soft, then drain the water and leave to cool.

Once cooked, transfer the minced beef mixture to a shallow oven dish and preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7.

Carefully layer half the potato slices on top, pour half the cream into the dish, and add the remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, pour the remaining cream over the dish, and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Your scrumptious and cheesy cottage pie is now ready to serve.