Homemade Mince pies 2012

Last year was my first time making mince pies from scratch. I made the mincemeat, the pastry, assembled the mince pies and also packed them nicely to gift them to my family. Because I liked the result and also enjoyed making them so much, I decided to make them again this year. I followed my old recipe but I made various changes to it and I can say that I definitely like this year's mince pies a lot. One thing I wasn't happy about last year's mince pies was the not so soft pastry. And this year I got a nicely soft pastry. The mincemeat this year is also sweeter than last year although I used no sugar in it. And while last year's mince pies post is called Light Mince pies, I can definitely say this year's mince pies are definitely lower in calories because of the lower sugar content used. Read my LIGHT MINCE PIES 2011 here. If you want to know my new recipe keep reading....

INGREDIENTS & PREPARATION (for soft not too sweet mince pies)

MINCEMEAT (I make it one day in advance)

500g sultanas

100g red raisins

100g Chinese red cherries

150g lemon peel diced

6 large apples peeled, cored and cut into small pieces

3 oranges juiced

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 teaspoons rum essence

I simply mix all the dry fruit and apples in a big plastic bowl. I then juice the oranges and add the rest of the liquid ingredients and spices. I mix this juice well and then pour it on top of the fruit mix. I mix well for a few minutes and then seal the bowl with plastic wrap. I leave the sealed bowl on top of my counter until the next day when I make the pastry and bake the mince pies.

PASTRY  (I used 4 times the ingredients below to make 4 batches of pastry)

175g all purpose flour

75g cake flour

1/6 cup of granulated sugar

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons iced water

100g soy butter cut into pieces

I combine the ingredients in the order they are listed above in a medium bowl and then rub the butter into the dry ingredients until a sorts of crumbly mixture forms. Then I start making balls out of the pastry using my hands and I keep working the pastry into a ball with my hands until it seems firm enough. Then I use all the mixture to make more balls and then wrap them using plastic wrap. 

Since I made 4 batches of the above pastry yesterday I had to repeat the above process 4 times. You can cut your time in half by doing 2 batches using double the ingredients for each. I couldn't do that because I was using all my large bowls.

The 4 batches of pastry yielded me 10 small mince pies, 10 medium ones and 4 large ones. I didn't cover the mince pies completely but I had enough pastry left to do so. So if you end up making 4 batches like I did, you can either have all the mince pies fully covered with pastry or do about 4 extra small mince pies. In this case you would have to use less mince meat for each mince pie since I had no mincemeat left.

For what concerns the assembling of mince pies this is what I did: I greased all the tins with soy butter; I cut pieces of pastry with my hands and pushed the pastry into the tin using my fingers. I did this for all the tins and while I was doing so I placed the tins in the freezer so that the pastry could become more firm. Then I took them out of the freezer, filled them with mincemeat and topped them with the pastry shapes (I used a large star and a Christmas tree) which I had already prepared and froze for few minutes. Then I baked them for about 20 minutes each alternating them between the lower and higher levels of my oven. Then I let them cool and stored them. And of course I enjoyed 2 with a hot barley cup.

What about you? Did you make your own mince pies this year? Do you plan on making them? If yes, you are still in time for Christmas or you can always do them for the New Year's Eve. If not you can find a confectionery or a local artisan market which sells them. Feel free to leave links to your mince pies recipe or pictures.

STAY FAB

&
MERRY CHRISTMAS