Time to get festive
The spicy sweet smell of baking mince pies is the essence of Christmas. Here’s a recipe for some particularly moreish ones
MAKES 9
275g unsalted butter, cubed
450g plain flour 75g ground almonds 50g icing sugar
2 egg yolks 20-30ml milk
For the mincemeat
2 apples, grated Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
450g vegetarian suet 110g mixed peel
2 tbsps marmalade 225g currants
450g raisins
225g sultanas
900g dark brown sugar 125ml whiskey
METHOD
1 The mincemeat should be made at least the day before. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, stir well, cover with a cloth and set aside overnight.
2 Combine the flour, almonds and sugar. Rub in the butter so the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolks. Stir gently, adding enough milk to form a dough. Cover with cling-film and refrigerate.
3 Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/ gas mark 6. Roll out the pastry to about 13mm thick and cut nine 7.5cm rounds using a pastry cutter. Roll up the scraps with the remaining pastry, roll out again and using a festively shaped cutter, make stars or bells about 6cm wide.
4 Grease the mince pie tins well and gently line them with the larger pastry circles. Fill with mincemeat so they are just full. Dampen the edges with water and top with the smaller pastry shapes. 5 Brush lightly with milk and bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.