THE ROOM FORTY MINCE PIE

Jen Perry is founder of Cheshire-based mobile afternoon tea and baking school, Room Forty.

Jen is passionate about getting people cooking and baking themselves rather than buying and consuming processed food. Everything that she serves at her afternoon teas are handmade, baked and prepared by herself in her family kitchen. The recipes that she is sharing are recipes that she bakes, serves and are loved by her customers.

She says: “Imagine a pastry that is incredibly short, sweet and buttery. Imagine a pastry so easy to make that you don’t need to roll it out, butter the tin or blind bake. Here’s our recipe for the easiest, crumbliest and most delicious mince pies you’ll ever make. Quick, easy and absolutely no faff!

This recipe makes about 24 small bite size-mince pies (ideal for afternoon tea, or as a tasty morsel to sit on your saucer with a nice brew). We make them in a mini-muffin tin (you could obviously make larger if you wished – it’ll make 12 – 18 regular-sized pies).

Mincemeat is so-called because the recipe used to contain meat along with the fruit. Over the years this has changed but most commercial mincemeats will still contain suet

(which are the white bits that you see). So far, so good, but not if you are vegetarian. Most commercial brands now contain vegetable suet, however most vegetable suet is made from palm oil, the harvesting of which is controversially responsible for deforestation and the demise of the orangutan. At Room Forty, we make our own – it is incredibly easy, delicious and suet free.” www.roomforty.co.uk

You will need:

A large mixing bowl.

Mini –muffin tray – enough to make about 26

Ingredients 225g diced butter 350g plain flour 100g caster sugar Pinch of salt

280g mincemeat Enough icing sugar to dust

Method 1 First, set your oven to 180C.

2 To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs then mix in the sugar and add a pinch of salt (use a food processor to do this if it is easier and you have one). Combine it into a ball and give a slight knead to make it into a firm, but crumbly dough. DON’T add any liquid *

3 Drop a small walnut-sized lump of dough into each of the tin holes, pressing it in with your finger as if you were using modelling clay until the base is covered and it has been pressed all the way up the sides to the top (it doesn’t need to be neat).

4 With a teaspoon fill the pies with the mincemeat.

5 Then take slightly smaller balls of dough and press them into a round pastry lid in your palm, big enough to cover the top of the pies and pop them on to the top, gently pressing the edges down to seal them (we told you this was easy – no need for egg or milk – they will seal on their own)**

6 Pop into the oven for about

15 minutes until they are golden

7 Remove them from the oven and leave in the tins for 5 minutes. Then very gently prise them out of the tins using the corner of a sharp knife (careful as this is very short and crumbly pastry) and place on a cooling rack.

8 Dust with icing sugar, pour a glass of sherry, and enjoy!