Merry MINCE PIES :)

23 December 2016 / No Comments

Just in time for christmas celebration, between cooking a Polish festive Borscht and cooling the pastry for the cake,
I’m here to wish you a very Merry Christmas and to share some mince pies,because what is this beautiful time of the year about if not about sharing.

I want to wish you all a MAGICAL TIME, whatever magical means to you.I hope it’s filled with things that make your soul happy and that you can celebrate Christmas time with people you love the most. I also hope that the spirit of Christmas, the laughter, joy,kindness and peace are present not only now but all year round.

ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS lovely people, that’s what Christmas is all about! xxx

Ps.
And If you still have some time left on your hands, knead the pastry, fill it with fruity mincemeat,have fun making these mince pies and enjoy every single bite 🙂

RECIPE:

It makes 1 tart (35x 12 cm size) and around 10 pie pops (6cm each).

300g plain flour
2 tablespoons icing sugar (I often use no sugar at all)
210g unsalted butter, refrigerated
2-4 tablespoons cold water
1 beaten egg for brushing
icing sugar to sprinkle with

800g fruit mincemeat (You can try this recipe or M&S sells some delicious fruit meancemeat- we don’t always have to make everything, do we? :))

Also:You’ll need star cookie cutters(different sizes), 6cm flutted pastry cutter(or use a glass or a jar :))and pie pop sticks or lollipop sticks.

METHOD:

Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl, add the butter (cut into smaller cubes) and rub it into flour with your fingertips until the dough will resemble crumble. Add the cold water starting with 2 tablespoons and quickly knead. If it’s still quite dry, add more cold water, and if it’s too sticky add a little bit more flour.Form the dough into 3 balls(1 bigger for the base of the tart, 1 smaller for the star toppings,and 1 for the pie pops), flatten them into discs using palm of your hand (they will roll out easier), wrap in cling film and cool in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Roll out the bigger pastry and line the tart tin, if you have any pastry left, use it for the star toppings.Prick the pastry with a fork and pack with mincemeat.Roll out the other pastry, cut out different star sizes with a cookie cutter,arrange them on the top of the tart and brush with an egg.Again if you have some pastry left use it for pie pops. Bake for 45 minutes.

To make pie pops, roll out the pastry and cut it out with 6 cm flutted pastry cutter(or use a similar size glass or a jar ), you will need 20 circles for 10 pie pops.Leave 10 circules plain(that’s the bottom of the pies), place the sticks so that it rests it the centre of each circle. Place mincemeat in the middle of each circle, not too much, leaving the edges. Brush the edges with an egg.Cut out stars in the other 10 circles, you can also leave some plain if you wish and place them on top of the filling, pressing the edges together. You can use a fork to do that, I worked with a pie pop stick, pressing it to the pastry and leaving just about 1mm space between the presses.Brush with egg , you can now decorate the plain circles with some stars and don’t forget to brush them with egg again. Bake for 30 minutes

Enjoy!IT’S SO MUCH FUN to make and eat, of course 🙂

Bea x