Orange mince pies
The average English person eats 27 mince pies during the Christmas period! Most of these are shop-bought, despite the fact that homemade versions are so much tastier and actually quite easy to create. This orange mince pies recipe is a good example – the shortcrust pastry is easy and can be made well in advance, as it keeps in the fridge for up to a week, so you’ll only need a jar of mincemeat and you’ll be able to make quick mince pies whenever you feel like it!
Ingredients
Method
- Mix the flour, sugar and salt, then add the orange zest.
- Dice the butter, then crumble it with the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs (use your fingers or a blender).
- Mix the egg yolks with the water – add this to the crumble and mix carefully until you get a dough, but don’t overmix, otherwise it will be too sticky!
- Form a big ball from the dough, wrap it in clingfilm and rest for 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a shallow muffin or tartlet tin.
- Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 3 mm thickness. Cut out circles with a pastry cutter (or a mug), large enough to fill the base of the tin holes (about 8 cm diameter).
- Gently press these disks into each hole and add 1 or 2 tsp of mincemeat. Don’t overfill them!
- Reroll the remaining pastry and cut slightly smaller disks to cover the mincemeat – or use a cookie cutter to stamp out star shapes and put these on top of the pies. Dampen the edges with water then press together.
- If you’d like the pies to have a shiny glaze, lightly beat an egg, then brush the tops with it
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes until lightly golden.
- Let them cool in the tin a bit then transfer them to a plate. Dust with icing sugar before serving.