Mince Pies

Anybody else absolutely hate mince pies as a kid but now you'd happily eat them for all of December? The recipe below makes a lot of mincemeat, it's ideal if you want to bake lots of mince pies for all those family and friends that you won't see as much this year.

As always the following recipe is gluten free.

If it's just for you and your family, I would recommend making a half batch of this recipe. I make mincemeat using butter instead of the traditional suet, as suet is not suitable for coeliacs or vegetarians; if you prefer suet just substitute the quantity of butter with the same quantity of suet. If using suet, just stir it into the soaked fruit and the shelf life is the same.

Mincemeat

Yield: 1250g

150g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

85g Spiced Rum

175g Sultanas

260g Raisins

125g Chopped Mixed Peel

50g Cherries

1 Orange zest & juice

50g Chopped Almonds/Hazelnuts

1 tsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg

225g Cooking Apple, grated (approx. 1 large)

125g Salted Butter, melted

Method:

1. Cut the cherries in halves or quarters. Finely zest an orange and juice it.

2. Mix all of the ingredients except for the butter. Stir them together and let it soak up the alcohol over night.

3. The next day, melt the butter, pour onto the fruit and mix it together well.

4. Store this mincemeat mixture in an airtight container out of direct sunlight. It can also be jarred in sterilised jam jars.

This mixture will keep for 2 months when stored properly.

Shortcrust pastry for Mince pies

Yield: 36 mini cupcake pan mince pies

Tin Size: Non stick 24 cavity pan with cups 4.5 cm wide x 2cm deep

Temperature: 170°C Fan

Equipment: rolling pin, rulers, baking tray, parchment paper, round cutters 6cm diameter and 5cm star point to point

365g Plain Flour

4g Xanthan gum

60g Caster sugar

250g Salted Butter, Cold & Diced

1 Medium Egg

Method:

1. Mix together the flour, xanthan gum and sugar together.

2. Using either a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or by hand, rub the cold butter into the dry ingredients until resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Add in the egg until the dough just comes together.

4. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking parchment, using two rulers (approx. ½ cm) the same height as they make a great level. Rest the ends of the rolling pin on the rulers to get it perfectly level.

5. Put the dough on a tray and chill for 30 minutes. Pre heat oven to 170°C.

6. Cut out pastry using lightly floured cookie cutters into rounds with the base and stars or snowflakes for the tops.

7. Gently press the rounds into the base of the cupcake pan. Using a teaspoon, fill up the centre with 1 and a half teaspoons or until just below the rim of the tin. Place the star or snowflake topping.

8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until pastry is golden around the edges.

9. Let mince pies cool in the cupcake pan. Once mince pies have cooled, place a cooling rack on top of the cupcake pan, and grip both with both hands and gently flip over, all the mince pies will pop out.

I make 24 mini mince pies and then I re roll the trimming for the last 12 minis. This pastry works perfectly even when re-rolling as I don't use excess flour to roll it so it won't dry out.

If you do not need to use gluten free flour, use normal plain flour and leave out the xanthan gum and the above recipe will work exactly the same.

Happy baking!