Mince pies

This is another post that was meant to be published pre-Christmas however now that the shops have stopped selling mince pies this is the perfect excuse to use this recipe and make some of your own to enjoy!

They’re really easy to make and if you’re not a fan of making pastry or simply don’t have time you can buy pastry to make them even easier to make. 

If you’re making your pastry you can use this recipe here.

Once your pastry is ready roll it out to about ½-1cm thick – you want it thick enough that it won’t have a soggy bottom or break but you don’t want it too thick that the mince pie is mainly pastry.

Then using a cookie cutter cut circles out to fit your cupcake tin. You want the circle to fit the bottom and up the sides. If you don’t have a circle cutter you can use something like a cup or jar! My cutter was good as it had a circle on one side and a star on the other which I used for the top.

Place one pastry circle into each dip of a cupcake tin until you’ve used about half of your pastry.

Then spoon in mincemeat. You don’t want to fill them completely to the top – this is what I did and had a lot of overflowing mincemeat in the oven!! One small tablespoon should be enough. Once your mincemeat is in cut out either smaller circles as lids, or a shape if you’d prefer – I used a star to partially cover my mincemeat. Press the sides of your lid into the bottom pastry to stick them.

If you have any leftover pastry you can make more mince pies, but I found it best to do them one at a time so you aren’t left with not enough pastry to make lids.

Then brush with a little milk and bake for about 12-15 minutes.

Remove them from the tin, using a palette knife if easier, and leave to cool.

Finally sprinkle with a dusting of icing sugar and your mince pies are ready to serve and enjoy!