Morning Beautifuls,
What screams Christmas more than mince pies? (Hint: nothing).
As I’ve being trying out so many new recipes throughout this holiday season, I decided to have a try at making some Christmas mince pies. I don’t actually like the taste of mince pies, although all the rest of my family loves them. I do love the smell of them though. The cinnamon and mixed spices make the house smell incredible, especially as they are cooking!
So let us make the whole house smell of Christmas and get baking!
You will need:
- 750g mixed dried fruit
- 100g blanched/flaked almonds
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- juice and rind of 1 small lemon
- juice and rind of 1 small orange
- 1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 100g butter, melted
- 1 cup brandy (or 1 cup water)
- 1 packet frozen shortcrust pastry
- Milk, to brush pastry
The first step is the longest step in the world. Just going to mention that. You need to chop all the fruit into small pieces and add the almonds, brown sugar, rind and juices, spices, butter and brandy to it, mixing well. Then you get to cover the bowl in cling wrap and refrigerate it for a while. This can be overnight or for a week (stirring at least once each day). I ended up leaving for a week (As I got super busy and forgot to make them earlier!). But whatever you choose!
Next comes the fun bit! Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and start rolling out your pastry. I bought pre cut pastry, making it not necessary for me to do any rolling. Which was great, because I struggle to evenly roll pastry.
Using a fluted cutter, that is slightly bigger than your pie pan (or cupcake tin) circle, cut the bases of your mince pies. Press then into your pan and then fill the bases with the mixture. Once that is done, brush the pastry edges with a bit of milk. This creates a glue in order to hold the tops on.
For the lid: You can either use a smaller circle to create the lids for your mince pies or, as I decided to do, use cute star cutouts to have an awesome extra-Christmassy lid. Just make sure the stars are big enough to touch the sides of the pastry or they could fall off!
Bake it for 15-18mins until they are lightly browned, sprinkle with some icing sugar and enjoy!
I’ve been told that these mince pies taste amazing either by themselves or with a splash of custard (you could even try eggnog seeming it is Christmas!) and ended up being really easy (and fun!) to do. It does make A LOT so enjoy giving them away as Christmas gifts (Christmas cupcake boxes are awesome to store them and wrap your mince pies) or have heaps of fun munching on them all!!!
Keep smiling and enjoy all the Christmas goodies,
Kay Anne.
Kay Anne 