Who doesn’t love a good mince pie? The most important word in that sentence is good. So here is what I think makes an excellent one. A few extras, but worth the effort!
Ingredients
- 140g/5oz cold butter , diced
- 225g/8oz Plain flour
- 50g/2oz Ground Almonds
- 50g/2oz Caster Sugar
- 1 Orange, zest only
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1-2 tsp cold water
- 280g/10oz good quality Mincemeat (see earlier recipe)
- 1 Egg beaten
- Icing Sugar for dusting
- Preheat oven to 200C
- Rub the butter into the flour and add the almonds, caster sugar, orange zest and salt until the mixture is a bit crumbly.
- 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.
- Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 2-3mmand cut out about 18 rounds measuring 7.5cm with a pastry cutter.
- Place in lightly greased patty tins and spoon the mincemeat evenly into the pies.
- Re-roll the leftover pastry and cut out round lids, Crimp the edges with a fork to ensure the lids are tight and the mincemeat doesn’t leak out..
- 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.
- Dust with icing sugar.
