Christmas has well and truly arrived.
It’s the 18th December (just!) and there are 7 days to go, if you are a paranoid shopper there’s only 6 days left. For me it’s not the tacky decorations in the shops, nigella’s christmas featuring on the tv, kirsty’s homemade christmas or the delicious treats that arrive in The Hummingbird Bakery that lets me know it’s arrived – the true sign that Christmas has been ushered in is the baking of mince pies and I recall my “first of the season” with great excitement.
However mince pies have been done so badly – too much mincemeat, too much pastry, or too cold. I can understand why some people loathe them. So I intend to transform the world of mince pie baking with my humble recipe posted here.
I inherited this recipe from my flat mate at university, who i credit a lot of my cookery skills to. Her father, guest house owner and chef extraordinaire gave her this recipe which she kindly shared with me and I’ve been using it ever since.
Perfect Mince Pies
- 200g plain flour
- 50g icing sugar
- 125g unsalted butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon ice cold water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- mincemeat
- egg yolk, caster sugar to decorate
You will need a small circular pastry cutter, various small shaped cutters – christmas tree, star, heart, snowman, angel whatever you have to hand.
- Mix the flour and icing sugar together, put HALF this mixture in the kitchenaid with ALL of the butter
- Mix the egg yolk, water & lemon juice together.
- Add the egg yolk mixture to the flour/sugar/butter mixture
- Mix together
- Add remaining flour and sugar to the mix.
- It will come together to form a dough.
- Chill for 30minutes in the fridge.
- Roll out pastry, cut out 24 circles and 24 tops.
- Gently push the circular cut outs into two 12-cup baking trays. Add one teaspoon of mincemeat to each pastry case. Top with cut out christmas tree or star.
- Brush egg yolk over the top and sprinkle with caster sugar
- Cook at 180′c for 10-12minutes
- Turn out and sprinkle with icing sugar – voila!
- serve warm, with cream, ice cream or brandy butter.
Perfect mince pies, only made slightly more perfect by lifting up the top and slipping some brandy butter ontop of the warm mincemeat to melt and ooze out the sides, when you’ve replaced the lid!
mmm…
Give them a try and see if you might change your mind about mince pies. Let me know if still love ‘em or hate ‘em!