Mince Pies

You'd probably think it is easy to make mince pies and so, you'd be right. However, as we all know, I like to add my own flavours in and so, it becomes a very different affair (and also a little bit more difficult than I had initially planned). I am aware of the fact that mince pies are Christmas bakes and not necessarily Halloween bakes but I genuinely wanted to make my mother some mince pies because I don't want her eating the Mr. Kipling ones because a) they are coated in sugar and b) she has a heart condition and that can't be good.

So of course I made a fondant lid that can be peeled off at will and of course I used half the amount of sugar in my pastry, replacing it with a bit of flavouring rather than having straight sugary stuff everywhere.

These mince pies take about an hour altogether to make and that includes chilling the pastry dough. I would say that if you leave the pastry lids off and instead add a thin layer of fondant, you can make things a bit more colourful.

So, here's the recipe complete with some cool tricks I've learnt along the way when it comes to making pastry...

Mince Pies

Note: replace eggs with a spoon of apple sauce if you'd like an egg-free recipe. All items containing dairy can be switched out for vegan alternatives. I tend to bake all of my cakes, biscuits, pastries etc. with dairy free items.

Part 1: Pastry

The pastry seems like it should be a breeze but it does take its time to come together. I'd also say that this is a reduced sugar recipe so be aware that the pastry may be less sweet than you would like it. I would say that if you want the full sugar recipe then add 50g more than what I state below...

Ingredients:

• 375g plain flour
• 260g butter
• 75g brown caster sugar
• 2x eggs
• 1x tsp cinnamon

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Of course, you can skip on the cinnamon if you'd rather have a sweet pastry, but I wouldn't recommend anything too sweet because remember: you still have to put the mincemeat in these and if you make them too sweet they'll taste horrid...

How To:

1. Work your plain flour and butter together until breadcrumbs are produced, then add the sugar, mixing again
2. After this, add one beaten egg and mix again until it starts to come together
3. You should have a dough that looks a little soft but still can be formed into a ball without leaving remnants on your hands
4. Place this dough into a container and put it in the fridge for around 20 minutes to chill
5. Put the remaining egg to one side because you'll need it later

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Part 2: Forming the Pies

This part is something I find difficult because I don't tend to like the whole construction/decorating side of pastry. But, after much sweating in the kitchen, I think I have finally cracked this one!

Ingredients:

• 600g-1kg of mincemeat mixture
• 1x lemon
• 1x the egg you put aside from earlier

This is going to be pretty fiddly so I wore gloves whilst doing it. Why? I didn't really fancy getting fingerprints on my dough. But if you're looking for a time to get your dough out of the fridge it is definitely before you start zesting that lemon in this ingredients section.

How To:

1. Preheat your oven to 180/C
2. Zest your lemon and mix it into the mincemeat via a bowl. This should give an extra tangy note to your mincemeat because that stuff can be very sickly sweet
3. Grab your pastry dough and roll it out so that it is about the thickness (and I'm using objects here because I don't have a ruler) of an air-tight container lid (yes, I used the lid of the container where I stored the dough)
4. Grab a circular bowl which has a diameter of about 6-7 inches and use it to cut your dough into circles (yes, more objects)
5. Grease up a cupcake tray and form your dough circles, pressing them lightly so that they get into the bottom. If you leave space for air, you'll get bubbles and it'll all go wrong from there. Best you use your hands for this, which is why I recommended gloves
6. Your dough circles should be coming out slightly from the tray because remember: they are going to shrink slightly
7. Use a tablespoon to spoon your mincemeat into the cases, filling to just under the rim of the cases in the tin
8. Grab the egg and beat it in a small bowl. Use a brush to wash your pastry. If you don't want to use an egg here, you can use milk instead
9. Place your pies in the oven for 12-15 minutes
10. Make sure the ends of your pastry are nice and golden brown before removing them from the oven
11. Wait for them to cool

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Haha! Now for the easy part - little fondant circles!

Part 3: Fondant

Ingredients:

• 50g fondant icing
• 1x tub of glacé cherries

How To:

1. Roll you fondant icing out to be as thin as you can get it without it going see-through
2. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter
3. Place atop your completely cooled pies
4. Decorate by halving a glacé cherry for each one - don't press them down or you'll put a hole in your icing!

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Well, I definitely made mince pies more complicated for myself. I hope you enjoy this recipe!