TODAY’S RECIPE: Best mince pies ever

GET ahead and freeze these. MAKES 12-18.

Ingredients

225g butter, diced 350g plain flour 100g golden caster sugar 280g mincemeat

Method

1 egg, to glaze Icing sugar, to dust

1. To make pastry, rub butter into flour. Mix in caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Combine pastry into a ball using your fingertips — don’t add liquid — and knead it until it is crumbly but roughly holding together. You can use the dough immediately or chill for later.

2. Heat oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6. Line a 12-hole tartlet tin (or two if your tins are shallow) by pressing small walnut-sized balls of pastry into each hole, pushing and pressing until the pastry goes all the way up the sides of the tin. Perfect edges are not essential. Divide the mincemeat between the pies.

3. Take slightly smaller balls of pastry than before and press out in the ball of your hand to make round lids, big enough to cover the pies. Top the pies with their lids, pressing the edges gently together to seal — you don’t need to seal them with milk or egg as they will stick on their own. The pies can be frozen for up to one month.

4. Beat egg and brush the tops of the pies. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes, then remove carefully and place on a wire rack. To serve, dust with icing sugar. Will keep for three to four days in an airtight container.