TRADITIONAL MINCE PIES

I will always cherish fond memories of my mother’s and my grandmother’s cooling trays piled high with freshly baked mince pies on Christmas Eve, ready to be packed into tins and brought out whenever friends popped in for Christmas drinks. The following is the traditional family recipe.

Makes 24

560g (1lb 4oz) mincemeat (see page34, opposite) 350g (12oz) plain flour A pinch of salt 75g (2¾oz) lard 75g (2¾oz) butter For the top A little milk Icing sugar One (or two) trays of 6cm (2½in) patty tins, one fluted 7.5cm (3in) pastry cutter and one 6cm (2½in) cutter

Preheat the oven to 200°C/ gas 6. Make up the pastry by sifting the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and rubbing the fats into it until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Then add just enough cold water to mix to a dough that leaves the bowl clean. Leave the pastry to rest in a polythene bag in the fridge for 20-30 minutes, then roll half of it out as thinly as possible and cut it into two dozen 7.5cm (3in) rounds, gathering up the scraps and re-rolling.

Then do the same with the other half of the pastry, this time using the 6cm (2½in) cutter.

Now grease the patty tins lightly and line them with the larger rounds. Fill these with mincemeat to the level of the edges of the pastry. Dampen the edges of the smaller rounds of pastry with water and press them lightly into position to form lids, sealing the edges.

Brush each one with milk and make three snips in the tops with a pair of scissors. Bake near the top of the oven for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with icing sugar. When cool, store in an airtight container.