STAR-TOPPED MINCE PIES

Please don’t think these will be better if you make the pastry out of butter rather than the butter and Trex mixed; it’s the vegetable shortening which makes the pies so celestially light (though by all means use lard if you object to ‘fake’ fats).

Makes 36

240g (8½oz) plain flour 60g (2¼oz) Trex or other vegetable shortening 60g (2¼oz) cold unsalted butter

Juice of 1 orange

A pinch of salt

350g (12oz) mincemeat 1 large egg, mixed with 1tbsp of water, to glaze (optional)

Icing sugar, for dusting You will need

A tray of miniature tart tins, each indent 4½cm in diameter

5½cm fluted round biscuit cutter

4cm star cutter

Measure the flour into a shallow bowl or dish and, using a teaspoon, dollop in little mounds of Trex, add the butter, diced small, combine with your hands and put in the freezer for 20 minutes. Mix the orange juice and the salt in a small jug and put this in the fridge.

Empty out the flour and fat into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until you’ve got a pale pile of porridge-like crumbs. Add the salted juice down the funnel, pulsing till it looks as if the dough is about to cohere; you want to stop just before it does. If all your juice is used up and you need more liquid, add some iced water. Turn out of the processor and, in your hands, combine to a dough. Form into three discs (since you’re going to have to make these in three batches, unless you’ve got enough tart tins to make all 36 pies at once). Wrap each in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7.

Roll out the discs one at a time as thinly as you can without exaggerating; in other words, you want a light pastry case, but one sturdy enough to support the dense mincemeat. Out of each rolled-out disc, cut out circles a little wider than the indentations in the trays. Press these circles gently into the moulds and dollop in a scant teaspoon of mincemeat. Then cut out your stars – re-rolling the pastry as necessary – and place them lightly on top of the mincemeat. If you want to glaze the mince pies, brush the stars with a pastry brush dipped into the egg and water mix. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t: the difference really is one of appearance and only you can decide whether you want them pale and matte or gold and shiny.

Put in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes: keep an eye on them, they really don’t take long. Remove from the oven, prising out the little pies straight away and letting the empty tin cool down before you start putting in the pastry for the next batch. Carry on until they’re all done. Dust some icing sugar over them by pushing it through a teastrainer before serving.