Mince Pies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Tis the season for lovely mince pies. nothing quite spells out the start of the festive season like the smell of the first batch of mince pies fresh from the oven. I often double this recipe as they tend to go quickly and any leftover will storer well for up to 1 week or can even be frozen.
Recipe type: Cakes and Bakes
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- For the pastry
- 350g/12oz plain flour, sifted plus extra for dusting
- 150g/5½oz unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes
- 50g/1¾oz icing sugar, sifted
- 1 orange, zest only
- 2 free-range egg yolks
- For the filling
- 2 x 400g/14oz jars mincemeat
- 2 tangerines, zest grated and flesh chopped
- 1 apple, finely diced
Instructions
- For the pastry,
- put the flour, softened butter, icing sugar and orange zest into a food processor pulse briefly just until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg yolks and then add 2-3 tablespoons of water just until the dough comes together.
- Tip out onto your work surface and squeeze the pastry together gently until you have a soft ball of pastry.
- Flatten to a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- For the filling, spoon the mincemeat into a bowl, grate the zest of the tangerines into the mincemeat, then the fruit.
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Grease a bun tin or muffin tin.
- Unwrap the pastry and roll out on a lightly floured work surface to the thickness of a one pound coin. Cut out 12 discs of pastry with a pastry cutter slightly bigger than the size of the bun tin holes.
- Press a round of pastry into the bottom of each hole.
- Fill each pastry case with mincemeat and then cut a further 12 rounds of pastry (this time one size smaller).
- Brush the rims of the pastry cases with a little beaten egg and press the lids on, pressing the edges with the ends of a fork to seal shut. t
- Transfer the tray to the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake the mince pies for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown and crisp.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then turn the mince pies out and serve.
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