Here I am passing you over to Jen who will share this recipe with you all: Do pop over to Jen’s award-winning craft blog as she shares wonderful craft activities, recipes & free print-outs and I can highly recommend having a look at her 50 acts of kindness for Advent.You’ll also find Mum in the Mad House over on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
Mince Pie Recipe
Ingredients
- 120g of butter
- 120g of Trex (or other shortening or lard)
- pinch of salt
- 400g self raising flour
- ice cold water (as needed)
Method
Weigh out 400g of flour in a large bowl, then dice into it your fats. Make sure they are very cold and are diced pretty small, by doing this you keep handling to a minimum, as warm hands melt the fat rather than rub it into the flour.
Tip – by adding the fats to the flour you can use it to keep the fats from sticking together.
If you have a food blender, now is the time to get it out and add your crumb mix to it and pulse with a cutting blade in it.
If not then with cold hands rub the fats into the flour, until it resembles a breadcrumb mixture.
Tip – by shaking the bowl all the large pieces of butter and Trex will come to the top making it easier to rub in.
Once everything is rubbed in, then place in a bag and pop in the freezer and leave until needed.
Tip – the crumb mix can remain frozen for up to six months
When you are ready to make the pastry, take out the amount you need and add some ice cold water and mix until it forms a dough (you will need less than you think, as the fats warm up and start to bring the pastry together).
Next for the mince meat. I rate M&S luxury Mincemeat and just add Cranberries, Cinnamon and Spiced Rum. It is Christmas in a jar!
Roll out your pastry as thin as you can and using a circular cutter, cut them out to make the base of the pies. If you are worried about them sticking then use cake release on the trays or grease them with butter.
Put a teaspoon of mincemeat into each pie case (you do not want them to bubble over as it makes them stick to the tray). I pop star shapes on the top of mine, but have used both trees and hearts in the past, just cut the pastry out so it sits on top of the mincemeat.
Gently brush the top of the pies with egg wash and place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.
Once cooked take out and remove from the tray straight away (I use a butter knife) and allow to cool these mince pies freeze very well and will reheat from frozen too
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