Mince Pies

I used my home alone morning today to catch up on some TV, read the papers, go for a long walk in the park and to do some Christmas baking. It was mince pies this morning. They aren't for us. My Mum is making those for our family Christmas lunch next weekend. These are for the carol service. So, they needed to be quite good, or at least look presentable.

Lots of people tend to be fearful of pastry. Believe you me I have tried out a few recipes myself that haven't worked. These days I have one pastry recipe that never fails. So be it a savory or a sweet dish, this the pastry I use. If you have a magi mix it is even easier.

Ingredients:

300g Self raising flour
150g butter / margarine
Pinch of maldon salt
Cold water

Without Magi Mix: You will get your fingers dirty. Using clean hands mix/crumble the fat into the flour to get breadcrumbs. add the salt. Just lift it up lots to get lots of air. Make a well in the centre of your bowl. Drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of water and mix with a metal spoon until the mixture starts to bind. Then use your hand to kneed. If it is too sticky, add more water, and if too crumbly add a little more cold water.

With a Magi Mix. Put the flour, fat and salt into the mixer. Use the large blade to whizz to make breadcrumbs. Switch to the large paddle/dough maker blade. Add a little cold water. Whizz to make dough.

On a good flat clean surface kneed your dough a little more and then roll out to make pastry. For mince pies this needs to be about half a centimetre thick.

For the mince pies you need to grease the linings of a 12 hole cake tin. You also need a large and a smaller cutter. Use the large cutter to cut the bottom linings. Place gently in the tray and then add about 2 spoonfuls of good quality mincemeat to each pie. Take care not to over fill. Then using the smaller cutter, cut the lids. Place on top of each individual pie, using a little water to stick.

Stab each pie a couple of times with a sharp knife. Brush with some milk and sprinkle with some brown sugar. I think brown sugar makes them even more seasonal.

Place in oven for just over 25 minutes, until golden brown. Then transfer to a cooling rack.

These freeze well. That's exactly where mine will be going before being dropped off at church later in the week. I took a picture of them first though: