Pieday Friday – Traditional Mince Pies

Of course, I couldn’t allow myself to get much closer to Christmas without posting a mince pie recipe for Pieday Friday and I’ve been baking a selection of mince pies this week, trying out different recipes and pastry effects. There’s no rules for mince pies and the prettier you can make them, the better. So try cutting out star shapes in your pastry for the pie lids, or make a lattice over the top, sprinkle with Demerara sugar for a sparkly effect – or even use edible glitter! I have tried rolling up pinwheel twirls of mince pie - simply roll out your pastry, spread mincemeat all over it and roll it up before cutting into discs and baking – this makes a snazzy small danish-pastry style mince pie.

I love a dusting of icing sugar, and you could even use a snowflake stencil on the pie lids to mask off an area when you’re shaking your icing sugar on. Here’s a few snaps from my baking session when I had a go at the ‘traditional’ mince pie – a small pie case, filled with mincemeat and topped with a full lid. Use these ingredients to make a batch of 12 small mince pies: 350g (12 oz) mincemeat, 225g (8 oz) plain flour, 2 tablespoons caster sugar, 125g (4½ oz) unsalted butter, 1 large egg, beaten and a little milk to glaze and sugar to sprinkle.

Preheat the oven to 200 C / Gas mark 6 and lightly butter a 12-case tin. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs and then stir in the beaten egg. Bring the mixture together, wrap with cling film and chill for half an hour. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it is very thin. Cut out 12 circles with a pastry cutter or even use the top of a glass – just make sure it is big enough to cover the base of the pie tins. Press gently into each case, then fill evenly with the mincemeat. Cut out another 12 slightly smaller circles and use to cover the mincemeat. Press the edges together and make a small slit in the top of each, then brush with a little milk.  Bake the pies for 20 minutes until golden brown.

I know some people aren’t keen on mince pies and I’m someone who can easily resist a shop-bought pie (too crusty) or a puff-pastry version (too flaky) but I have no will-power against a freshly baked homemade mince pie at Christmas (just right..!). So this is the weekend to get baking and make double portions so that you can freeze a trayful of mince pies and pop a couple in the oven whenever visitors arrive over the festive period – you’ll have a lovely christmassy smelling house and will look like a domestic goddess! Here’s the finished article beautifully presented on my new Dunelm Mill festive cake stand from their Holly and Berries collection - with a few chocolate snowballs thrown in for good measure!