Mince Pies are traditionally served during the festive season, they are fruit based mini pies that the British eat millions of during November and December. We would compare mince pies to Marmite in the sense you ever love them or hate them! They are definitely something you learn to love as you get older and they taste especially nice with brandy butter!
Homemade mince pies (including the pastry) taste amazing straight out the oven, this year we decided to make ‘open mince pies’. Instead of covering the mince pies with a lid we cut out stars and placed them on top of the mince meat.
We didn’t have time to make our own mince meat so went to Waitrose and picked up one of their mince meats as we have heard it tastes amazing. To give it our own touch we also added some extra ingredients which you will find below!
Ingredients Pastry
350g Plain flour
250g Butter
1 Egg
100g Caster sugar
Dash of water
Ingredients Mince Meat
Waitrose Mince Meat
2 Tangerines flesh and Zest
1 Braburn Apple finely chopped
Method
1. Pre heat the oven to 180oc
2. Rub together the butter and flour using your finger tips
3. Mix in the sugar, egg and water
4. The mixture should now form a pastry, be careful not to over mix
5. Place the pastry in the fridge to chill
6. While the pastry is chilling chop the apple and place in a large mixing bowl
7. Grate the Tangerine zest and chop the flesh and add to the mixing bowl
8. Add the jar of mince meat to the mixing bowl and stir using a wooden spoon.
9. Roll the pastry and cut using a circle cutter (should be about 2cm thick)
10. Place the pastry into a baking tin and then add the mince meat.
11. You will then need to cut out the stars and place them on top of the pies
12. Cook the mince pies for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.