A great British pastime...

Baking mince pies at Christmas!!!

Mince pies are little cups of pastry filled with mince meat, which, contrary to what it suggests, is not beef or lamb. In fact, these little cups of joy are sweet and filled with raisins, suet, currants, peel, apple and mixed spices, including cinnamon, coriander, dill, fennel, cloves, ginger and nutmeg (can you tell I'm reading this off a jar label?!) There are some great recipes for making home-made mince meat, but it is a long process and suet is pretty impossible to find over here (apart form at the British Emporium, but then you have to pay an arm and a leg to get it). So I bought my jar and asked the experts, aka my mum and nanna, how best to make the pastry. They gave me the following recipes to try:  


1lb (2 cups) plain flour,

2tsp mixed spice (optional) 8oz (1 cup) butter 3tbsp icing (powdered) sugar 3 egg yolks, beaten

Sift flour and spice and rub in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in icing sugar, egg yolks and 3tblsp cold water. Knead to a soft dough. Chill for 15mins before rolling out. Fill with mincemeat, cover with dampened lids. Brush with egg white. Freeze for 30mins, then pop in oven @ 375f for 20 mins. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

OR

10oz margarine 4oz castor sugar 4tblsp beaten egg 1lb plain flour sifted with a pinch each of bicarbonate of soda and salt.

Cream the margarine and castor sugar. Gradually add the beaten egg. Gradually work in the sifted dry ingredients to make a soft dough. Wrap and chill until firm. Bake mince pies for 15 mins @ 400f, then brush with egg and sprinkle with castor sugar. Return to oven for a further 2-3 mins.

A little tip from me to you: make sure you own a rolling-pin before attempting to make pastry. I won't tell you what I used, but it was interesting.

Of course, while making mince pies you should find your favourite Christmas album and crank it up, unless you're me who re-discovers the best of Hanson and gets distracted by Hmmm-bopping and wanting to know the answer to 'Where's the Love?'

When your mince pies are ready, serve warm (you can re-heat them in the oven on a low temp) and with brandy butter (if you want to be very British) or cream.