Gemma 
Welcome to Day 5 of Blogmas At Home 2024! 🎄🎅🏻✨
Mince pies are a quintessential Christmas treat here in the UK and, while you can buy a variety of ready-made ones from shops all over the country this time of the year, nothing quite beats a homemade version. Today, I’m sharing my family’s recipe for this festive snack!
Table of Contents
Mince Pies: Explained
If you’re not familiar with mince pies (and are currently feeling slightly uneasy because you’re imagining some sort of meat-based, mince-y filling), let me quell your fears: mince pies are small, sweet pastries, filled with a spiced, dried fruit filling. No meat at all! The filling is known as ‘mincemeat’, and you can buy it in jars from the supermarket, or make your own at home. Every filling is a little different, but it’s typically a mixture of dried and fresh fruit, along with sugar, spices, suet and some sort of alcohol (usually brandy). You can’t really taste the alcohol— it’s mainly there to preserve the filling, so it can be sold and kept in jars, like a jam or chutney.
The type of pastry used also varies: typically, a shortcrust pastry is used, but new variations are always popping up— I’ve seen mince pies made using puff pastry, and even filo pastry! In this recipe, I’m using a homemade, sweet shortcrust pastry that is super quick and easy to make.
A Note on Mincemeat
For this recipe, you can either use homemade mincemeat, or bought mincemeat— it’s entirely up to you! I love making my own mincemeat, but I often use shop-bought mincemeat too. It’s up to you and whatever suits your budget/time constraints.
Homemade Mincemeat
If you choose to make your own, I absolutely love this recipe from Delia Smith. It’s delicious made as written, but it’s also a great starting point for trying out new variations and flavour combos. For example, this year, I opted to replace some of the currants and mixed peel with an equal weight of dried cranberries, for an extra festive touch! I make my mincemeat around October-time, then pack it into sterilised jars, add a wax circle on top and store them in the back of the cupboard until mince pie season arrives, so I’m totally prepared.
Shop-Bought Mincemeat
As I mentioned before, there are hundreds of different mincemeat fillings available, each with different fruit combinations, different spices, different additions and alcohols (the list goes on…). Good quality mincemeat will inevitably taste better (and make for better mince pies), but the rest is up to you and your personal tastes! Try a few and find out what you like. Also, remember that you can add extra things to ready-made mincemeat to make it extra special: trying adding orange zest, dried cranberries, more alcohol— whatever you fancy.
Vegetarian Mincemeat
While we’ve already established that mincemeat does not actually contain minced meat, it does traditionally contain suet. Suet is an animal fat, so traditional mincemeat is not vegetarian-friendly. However, you can buy vegetable suet, which is made from vegetable fats instead and can be used as a direct substitute for regular suet. In fact, I always use vegetable suet when making my own mincemeat, so that I know my mince pies will be safe for any vegetarians.
If you’re planning to buy your mincemeat and you want your mince pies to be vegetarian-friendly, just make sure you buy vegetarian mincemeat!
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
Now we’ve covered the mincemeat, we can get on with the pastry.
This is a slightly unusual recipe for shortcrust pastry, but it’s what we’ve always used in my family and it is really delicious, tender, flaky and, most importantly, super easy to make!
Ingredients
For this pastry, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Plain flour
Also known as all-purpose flour. Don’t use self-raising flour, because you don’t want the pastry to rise.
- Icing sugar
This adds sweetness to the pastry, which works well with the rich filling.
- Stork
Okay, this one’s a bit of a curveball ingredient, but it works! Stork is a baking margarine here in the UK, which I usually only use for cake batters (because it makes such a moist, fluffy cake). However, using it in this pastry makes it super soft and tender and delicious. It also means the pastry comes together really easily, because Stork is softer than regular butter. If you don’t want to use Stork, or can’t find it, you can use regular unsalted butter instead (just be aware that the pastry will take longer to come together).
- Egg yolk
Adding an egg yolk to the pastry gives it a real richness.
- Ice-cold water
The water needs to be ice-cold, to help keep the pastry as cold as possible.
- Lemon juice
Lemon juice helps to keep the pastry short and crumbly, perfect for a mince pie!
Method
To make the pastry, start by sieving together the flour and icing sugar.
Place the dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor, fitted with a plastic blade, along with the Stork (using a plastic blade helps to prevent the pastry from becoming tough).
Pulse the ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolk with water and lemon juice.
Add the egg mixture to the food processor, then process everything until the pastry just comes together.
Overworking the dough at this stage will make for tough pastry later, so make sure to stop as soon as the pastry comes together.
Finish bringing the pastry together with your hands, then wrap it in clingfilm and place it into the fridge to chill for at least an hour.
That’s it! Of course, you can make this dough without a food processor too, but the machine makes it even quicker and easier. If you want to do it by hand, I recommend using a fork to mix all of the ingredients together, because the Stork can be quite sticky at first!
Making the Mince Pies
Once your pastry has chilled, you can get on with making the mince pies. Start by preheating the oven to 200°C and lining a 12-hole fairy cake tin with paper cases (the paper cases aren’t exactly traditional, but it makes getting the mince pies out of the tin so much easier!).
Get yourself all set up before you take the pastry out of the fridge. Dust a clean work surface & rolling pin liberally with a little more plain flour and get your cutters ready. You’ll need 2 fluted round cutters (6cm and 7cm diameter) and one small star-shaped cutter (though the latter is optional!).
Take the pastry out of the fridge and cut it into two pieces: one should be about 2/3 of the pastry, one about 1/3. This is because you’ll need more pastry for the bases of the pies than for the lids.
Lightly flour your work surface, then roll out the larger piece of pastry until it is about the thickness of a pound coin. This will seem quite thick, but it’s meant to be.
Using the larger, 7cm cutter, cut out 12 rounds. Re-roll the pastry as needed.
Place one round into each paper case and use your fingers to press them down gently to form a bowl shape.
Add a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat into each pastry case and set aside.
Now roll out the smaller section of pastry, to the same pound coin thickness. Use the smaller, 6cm cutter to cut out 12 more circles— these will be the ‘lids’.
At this point, I like to use the small, star-shaped cutter to cut a little pastry out of the centre of each lid (kind of like a Jammy Dodger/Linzer cookie). You’ll have to add some holes later on, anyway, and while this can be done with a sharp knife once the pies are assembled, I think you might as well take the chance to add a little extra festive spirit!
Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the bottom pastry cases with a little water, making sure to go all around the edges. This will help the pastry lids to stick.
Place one lid on top of each case and use your fingers to press gently around the edges to seal the pastry together.
If you didn’t cut a shape out of the lids earlier, make sure to cut a couple of slits in the top of each pie at this stage! This will allow any steam to escape.
To finish off the pies, brush a small amount of milk over the top of each one. This will help them to go nice and golden in the oven!
Once all the pies are ready, place them into the preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden.
Allow the mince pies to cool slightly, then dust with icing sugar before serving.
The mince pies can be eaten hot or cold. They can also be reheated (in the oven, or even in the airfryer!).
Make-Ahead
You can freeze the unbaked mince pies, so that you can bake them off quickly whenever you need them! To do this, assemble the mince pies in the tray, but don’t brush the tops with milk. Put the whole tray into the freezer for 24 hours, then transfer the frozen pies to a resealable bag (this means you can get your tray back!) to keep in the freezer.
The pies can be baked from frozen— just put them back into the fairy cake tray and bake at the same temperature (200°C). The pies will need a couple more minutes than they would usually, so just keep an eye on them.
Recipe
Mince Pies
Equipment
- 1 12-hole fairy cake tin
- 12 paper fairy cake cases
- 2 fluted circle cookie cutters, (6cm and 7cm diameter).
- 1 mini star-shaped cutter (optional, see Note 1).
- 1 pastry brush
Ingredients
For the sweet shortcrust pastry:
- 225 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting.
- 50 g icing sugar
- 150 g Stork (see Note 2).
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp ice-cold water
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
For the pies:
- 350 g mincemeat (see Note 3).
- Icing sugar, for dusting.
Instructions
Make the sweet shortcrust pastry:
- Sieve together the flour and sugar and place into the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the plastic blade. Add the Stork, then pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Whisk the egg yolk with the water and lemon juice in a small bowl, then add to the food processor as well.
- Pulse all of the ingredients together until a dough starts to form. Bring the mixture together with your hands, then wrap tightly in clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.
Assemble the mince pies:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a 12-hole fairy cake tin with paper cases.
- Take the pastry out of the fridge. Take 2/3 of the pastry and roll out to the thickness of a pound coin. Use the larger, 7cm cutter to stamp out 12 circles and gently press one into each paper case.
- Add a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat into each pastry case.
- Roll out the remaining dough to the same pound coin thickness, then use the smaller, 6cm cutter to cut 12 more circles. Use the star-shaped cutter to cut out a small star from the centre of each circle.
- Brush the edges of the bottom pastry cases with water, then place the smaller circles over the top, using your fingers to press down and seal the edges.
- Brush the top of each pie with a little milk, then bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly, then dust with icing sugar and serve. The pies can be eaten hot or cold (they can also be reheated in the oven/airfryer). They can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days.
Notes
- I like to cut a star shape out of the centre of each pie, because I think it looks extra festive. If you don’t want to do this, just make sure to use a sharp knife to poke a few slits in the top of each pie, once assembled, to allow any steam to escape.
- I use Stork for this recipe because it’s what my mum always uses, but you can use diced, unsalted butter if you prefer (just be aware that the mixture will take longer to come together).
- You can use homemade or store-bought mincemeat for this recipe.
