Halloween recipe: Creature from the Black Lagoon sheet pan pie

Sheet pan pies are an amazing wonder, like a pot pie turned upside and baked without a dish.

Like so many, I am always falling for cute food images, and the pumpkin-shaped sheet pan pie at WisconsinCheese.com -- the Jack-o'-Lantern Beef Pot Pie -- was a recipe to love. It put a new spin on pot pie with a cheesy chili-beef filling. We featured it in our fall issue after testing it twice and making a few adjustments. We wanted to show the fun result of our last test here. 

In the first test, the pie's crust split at the seams, unfortunately, right around the pumpkin's jaw line.

The filling was very wet. So in the next test, we decided to better control the liquid, and we folded the crust up instead of under, as the original recipe had advised. It was an effort to contain any leaking juices. It worked.

After cutting out what I anticipated would be a spooky pumpkin face, we stretched the top crust over the heap of beef, black beans and tomatoes.

Instead of a toothy Jack-o'-Lantern, the pie baked up to looked more like the face of the Gill Man, better known as the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Read on for the recipe that tells how we made him.

A sheet pan pie is not an everyday dinner, but a dish for celebrations. Let creative juices flow (just not those in the filling!) and you can come up with sheet pan pies that look like all sorts of characters, or take on a variety of fun shapes.  

HALLOWEN SHEET PAN PIE RECIPE: CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Ingredients

1 medium sweet red bell pepper

1 medium yellow bell pepper

1 pound 90% lean ground beef (or lean ground turkey)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and well drained

10-ounce can Rotel brand tomatoes and green chilies

1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)

8 ounces Boar’s Head or Roth brand Havarti cheese, shredded and divided (2 cups)

Two 9-inch rolled refrigerated or frozen pie crusts

Directions

1. Line a large, rimless cookie sheet with baking parchment. Cut 2 eye pupils from red pepper (as shown above). Cut 5 to 12 yellow pepper teeth. Chop remaining peppers.

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sprinkle meat with salt and cook with peppers and onion. Stir and break up meat to brown fully, cooking until liquid evaporates.

3. Stir in beans, well-strained tomatoes (drink the juice), garlic powder and 1-1/2 cups cheese. Remove from heat.

Our inspiration from the recipe at WisconsinCheese.com

4. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Unroll a pie crust. Place on prepared pan. Straining away any juices, pile meat mixture evenly onto crust, starting at center and out to about an inch from edges. (It will look like too much, but heap it on.) Unroll second crust, cut out eyes. Since the Creature-making effort is more deliberate this time, pay attention to the eyes, which should be more crescent-shaped. And cut a very wide Creature mouth. If you're really into it, use the crust cutouts to build up his brow and create side gills. Place crust face over meat mixture. Pinch top and bottom crusts together all around, then fold up. Crimp edges with fork tines to seal.

5. Bake 20 minutes on bottom oven rack. Stuff remaining cheese into eye and mouth openings; add peppers cut for eye pupils and teeth. Bake 8 to 10 minutes more, until cheese melts. Let rest 5 minutes before cutting to serve. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition information (per serving, beef): 476 calories, 27g fat (10g saturated), 102mg cholesterol, 795mg sodium, 31g carbs, 4g fiber, 4g sugars, 28g protein

— Adapted recipe, pumpkin photo courtesy Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.