Today I made my mince pies. You may recall that I made the mincemeat a couple of weeks ago, and stored it in sterilised jars. The mincemeat will keep for at least 6 months in an airtight jar, and I have more than I needed for today’s recipe, so I can repeat it in the months to come.
For the pastry I made a simple sweet pastry, which is quite short, and crumbly. I bought a patty/bun tin to use for the pies too, as I thought a muffin tin was just too deep, the danger would be over-filling the pies. What you need is a good balance between mincemeat and pastry.
The final result has turned out very well, and I have already eaten one, so I can report that they taste very good too. I already knew the mincemeat was good, as I used some a couple of weeks back, but in the form of pies, the traditional way to eat, it is even better.
The recipe for the pastry will actually make enough for at least 16 pies. I only made 12, as I only wanted to open one jar of my mincement. The weight of mincemeat in one jar was 574 grams/20 ounces. As I filled the pies as full as I could I used every single gram from the jar.
In the photo I have broken one pie open so you can see the inside as well.
For the pastry:
- 375g plain flour
- 260g unsalted butter, softened
- 125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 large egg, plus 1 beaten egg for glazing
- Place the flour and butter in a bowl and rub together to a crumb consistency. Add the sugar and the egg, and mix together. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and fold until the pastry comes together, be careful not to over mix. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for 10 mins.
- Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick. Using a round cutter (about 10cm), cut out 12 bases and place them into patty/bun trays. Put 1 1/2 tbsp mincemeat mixture into each. Brush the edge of each pie with a little beaten egg. Re-roll out the pastry to cut 7cm lids and press them on top to seal. Glaze with the rest of the egg, sprinkle with caster sugar, then make a small cut in the tops.
- Bake mince pies for 15-20 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool before releasing them from the patty/bun tray and dusting with icing sugar.