Whilst we always assume mince pies are a solely for the festive season, feel free to make them at any time.
There is something magical about the annual ritual of making your own mince pies, making your own mincemeat or enhancing store bought mincemeat with your own twist takes them to a whole new level.
No scented candle can replicate the intoxicating aroma that fills the air when they are cooking and lingers long after. It evokes so many memories of Christmas’s past
Mince Pies are ideal for freezing. They are perfect to have when friends pop by, they defrost quickly and can be popped in the oven, they are delicious served warm with cream.
This recipe makes a batch bake of 24 mince pies, you can reduce the ingredients to make less or just freeze 24 and take them out when needed.
Buttery Pastry ingredients:
For the filling:
Essential Equipment:
To make the sweet pastry, rub the flour, butter, sugar and the 2 egg yolks together in a large mixing bowl, initially add one tablespoon of cold milk and bring the mixture together so it is dough. Add a little more milk if the mixture is still too dry to come together. Divide the pastry in half and wrap both pieces in clingfilm and put them in the fridge to chill for about 10 minutes.
Grease your mince pie tins with butter.
Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll out one of the wrapped chilled pastry pieces to a 3mm/1/8 in thickness. With a round fluted pastry cutter, cut out 24 x 8cm/3¼in discs of pastry. Gently press 12 of the pastry rounds into the greased tin wells. Fill each one with a good tablespoon of the mincemeat mixture weighing about 30 grams. Try not to overfill and get the mixture on the edges of the pastry. Whisk the remaining egg yolks and with a silicone brush paint around the rim of the cases about 3mm in this works as a glue to join the base and lid.
The remaining 12 x circles are for the lids. Place a lid on top of each base and gently press around the edges of the lid so the top and bottom seal together. Brush the tops with whisked egg yolk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Make a small hole in the centre of each lid to let the steam out when cooking.
Now repeat with the second chilling piece of pastry.
When ready, bake both trays of 12 for approx. 20 minutes, or until the mince pies are light gold in colour, let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
Best served warm with fresh cream.
Handle the pastry as little as possible. If you have a marble board this really helps when rolling out sweet pastry as it is better on a cooler surface. You can also use a marble rolling pin.
Use floured cutters, it helps lifting and cutting.
Golden granulated sugar gives the pies a lovely finish but normal granulated sugar works well too.
These will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. Freezable once cool.
If you have any pastry and mincemeat left you can make a mincemeat sweet pasty. Lovely with custard.
Pastry
The mincemeat filling isn’t the only star of a mince pie, the pastry is an incredibly important part too and is often overlooked. Half of a mince pie is the pastry, so you want it to be light, buttery, sweet and a delicious carrier for the filling. When you get them both right the marriage is unbeatable. Instead of a full lid you can cut out a star or heart and pop that on the top instead.
Filling
You can use pre-made mincemeat but if you are going to go through the effort of making your own delicious buttery pastry, go the extra mile and either make your own mincemeat or an easy and quick alternative is to enhance store bought mincemeat.
You can add different ingredients that enhance the flavour and texture. Great combinations are whisky with chopped apple, Grand Marnier or Cointreau with orange zest and juice, Jack Daniels with lemon zest and juice. You could add to any of the above combinations; pecans, flaked almonds or walnuts. Add stem ginger or cut up marzipan and add it to the mincemeat. All these different combinations will give a really interesting and unique twist that you will not find in most store bought mince pies.
Make your own special version that is unique to you x
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