Heather's bangles and other hobbies.

                   Here is a nice Christmas recipe! 
I am going to enter these mince pies with boozy homemade mincemeat in Cake of the week's Baking with Spirit competition!  

Mini mince pies and homemade mincemeat 

Makes18 mini mince pies
 Pastry

 150g of plan flour (sieved) 
50g ground almonds 
35g icing sugar (sieved)
 75g of chilled unsalted butter, chopped into cubes
 Zest of a lemon 
1 egg yolk 
Approx 3 tablespoons of cold water 
Mincemeat 
This mix will do for two batches of mince pies, as there is no suet in the mix it can be stored in a jar in the fridge of about a week.
 100g mix of dried fruit,( this could be sultanas currants, raisins, mixed peel, apricots) 
25g dried cranberries or cherries
 Zest and juice of one orange Zest and juice of ½ waxed lemon 
25g golden caster sugar (add a bit more if you have a sweet tooth!) 
25ml brandy 
Dash of orange liquer if you have any 
1tsp mixed spice 
1 tsp cinnamon
 1 small bramley apple (about 50g) peeled and cored 
1. To make the mincemeat, mix all the dried fruit together add zest, orange and lemon juice, sugar brandy and spices. Mix together . Grate the apple and add to the mix. Cover the bowl and leave for a few hours or even better overnight. Stirring occasionally.
 To make the pastry.  
1. Sieve the flour, ground almonds and icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest.
 2. Add the cubed butter and with your fingers rub in the butter until the mix is like fine breadcrumbs. 
3. Add the egg yolk and enough cold water that the mix is covered and then gather into a soft dough. 
4. Put the dough into the fridge for 30 minutes.
 5. Roll our the chilled pastry on a floured board until is it 3-4 mm thick. Use a 7cm fluted pastry cutter or star shape to cut out 18 shapes. Then roll out the bits that are left and with a small star shape cutter cut out 18 tops. 
6. Grease mini pie tin or individual cases and carefully add the large shapes. 
7. Put about a teaspoonful of mincemeat into each pastry case then add the star lids. Brush the lids with the leftover white of the egg.
 Cook in a preheated oven to 190c fan oven/170c / gas 5 for 15-20mins until the pastry is a light golden colour. Take the pies out of the oven then leave to cool for a few mintues in the tin. Remove to a wire rack and dust with icing sugar. Leave them to cool completely then store in an airtight container.