I had never actually made mince pies before today, so I wasn't quite sure how successful my first attempt would turn out, but I was so surprised at how easy these were to make, how good they turned out, and how extremely delicious they were!
I recommend EVERYONE to give this recipe a go, especially as it's Christmas, which means YUMMY FOOD!
You will need -
225g Cold butter (Diced)
350g Plain flour
100g Golden caster sugar
280g Mince meat
1 Small egg
Icing sugar (For dusting)
Method -
Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6/180C Fan oven.
Rub together sieved plain flour and diced, cold butter with your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and sticks together slightly.
Add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar and combine the mixture until it forms a ball.
Wrap the ball up and chill in the fridge for about an hour.
When the dough is cool enough, add sieved flour to your work surface and a rolling pin and roll the dough out to about 1/4cm - 1/2cm.
Find the correct size round cookie cutter or the top of a glass to cut circles of dough to line the inside of baking tray holes perfectly, with no overhang.
You may want to test the size and shape of your cutters until you find the perfect one, a glass tumbler worked best for the size of my baking tray.
Lay the circles of dough into each hole of the baking tray, if your tray isn't greaseproof, rub a little butter into each hole beforehand.
Add a spoon of mincemeat into each hole, making sure it doesn't spill onto the edges of the dough.
To cut the lids of the mince pies, I used the same sized tumbler as before and cut a regular circle lid, then used a smaller, scallop-edged cutter and cut out the middle. I placed both of these pieces onto the top of the mincemeat and sealed the outer edge of the larger circle to the bottom piece of dough.
The reason I cut the smaller circle was so heat can escape from the mincemeat when cooking, but it will not burn as it is not fully exposed to the heat of the oven.
When all the pies are covered, crack open a small egg and brush over the tops of each pie.
Bake for around 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown, then take out of the oven and leave to cool.
Sieve icing sugar lightly over the tops of each mince pie,
and Enjoy!
