What more can I say? It's December, and I'm a sucker for festive spirit. There's just something gorgeous and warm and tasty about it. Quite like these homemade fruit mince pies, actually. The recipe is originally from Taste.com.au, and I love it because it's so rustic and just plain yummy. However, I did have one gripe with the recipe - it simply didn't make enough pastry. So in this recipe, I'm going to multiply the pastry amounts by 1.5, and I hope it's enough. Please keep in mind you're going to need at least 2 days to make these, as the fruit mince needs to macerate for at least 12 hours for best results. So here we go!
Makes 20
- 2 cups of dried mixed fruit (for a hardcore home-maker, use a mix of raisins, sultanas, currants and glace cherries)
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of finely chopped slivered almonds
- 1 peeled Granny Smith apple, finely grated
- 40 grams of melted butter
- 2 Tbsp brandy
- 3 tsp of finely grated lemon rind
- 1 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pastry:
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 240 g chilled butter, chopped
- 2 egg yolks
- 4 Tbsp iced water
To top:
- 1 egg, whisked
- White sugar to dust
To make the fruit mince:
Finely chop half of the mixed fruit. Place all mixed fruit, brown sugar, almonds, apple, butter, brandy, lemon rind, lemon juice, cinnamon, mixed spice and nutmeg into a large bowl. Stir until well mixed. Cover and set aside (preferably overnight), mixing occasionally. (Apologies for the blurriness)
The next day, place the fruit in a strainer over a bowl to allow the excess moisture to drain. While this is happening, start the pastry!
To make the pastry:
Place the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and blend until well combined and fine.
Roll out the pastry (place baking paper between the pastry and the roller and the pastry and the bench, or else the pastry will stick and tear and become very inconvenient) until it's 4-5 mm thick. Use a biscuit cutter 8.5 cm in diameter to cut out one circle, then use a 5 cm diameter star cutter to cut out a star (cutting the circles and stars simultaneously ensures you don't run out of pastry before you start doing the stars). Set the star aside on a plate, and use the circle to line a 1/3 cup capacity cupcake/muffin baking pan. Press the circle neatly down into the edge of the pan. Repeat this process until you run out of pastry - you should probably end up with 20 cupcake pans filled. (You don't need to grease or line the tins or use patty pans, just leave the tins bare before putting pastry in.) Fill each pastry base with fruit mince.
Then, turn to the stars. Leave them on the plate while you brush their tops with the whisked egg, then top the pastry bases with the stars. (Don't put the stars onto the pies before brushing with egg, because if any egg gets onto the sides of the pie, they'll stick horribly to the tin.)
Once they're on top of the pies, sprinkle the tops with the white sugar. . Then bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden. Set the pans aside for 5 minutes to cool and then transfer the mince pies to a wire rack to cool completely - I generally find it's best to use a thin knife to run around the edge of the pies and then lever them out of the baking pans. :)
And there you go! The traditional Christmas treat, all golden and warm and absolutely delicious! Be merry, my children!
