You’ll need some mincemeat for this – I’m sure shop-bought would work fine, though. The pastry is the important bit here – this is Ainsley Harriott’s recipe from the BBC, though with some adjustments! The result is very popular – with all ages!
Mince Pies
Ingredients
- 140g/5oz cold butter, diced
- 225g/8oz plain flour
- 50g/2oz ground almonds
- 50g/2oz golden caster sugar
- 1 orange, zest only
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1-2 tsp cold water
- 280g/10oz good quality mincemeat
- A little milk for brushing the tops
- icing sugar for dusting
Preparation method
- Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
- Rub the butter into the flour and add the almonds, caster sugar, orange rind and salt until the mixture is a bit crumbly. (I do this in a food processor – pulse until it’s a bread-crumb consistency)
- Combine mixture with the egg yolk and 1-2 teaspoons of water until it forms soft dough, then put it into a plastic bag and chill for 20 – 30 minutes. (Again with the food processor! Also, cold pastry is easier to work with and will taste better as you’re less likely to overwork it and make it tough.)
- Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 2-3mm(0.1in) and cut out about
1812 rounds measuring 7.5cm(3in) with a pastry cutter. (Use a sheet of cling-film so it won’t stick to the worktop and make it easy to pick up the thin pastry.) - Place in lightly greased patty tins and spoon the mincemeat evenly into the pies. (I don’t weigh the mincemeat, I just stick a generous spoonful in – about a tablespoon.)
- Re-roll the leftover pastry and cut out round lids, stars or other festive shapes to fit on top of the mincemeat.
- Lightly brush the pastry tops with the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes until golden.
- Remove from oven and leave for a few minutes before removing from tins and cooling on a wire rack. (Leaving them to cool a bit in the tins makes them less likely to fall apart as you take them out!)
- Dust with icing sugar.