Mince Pies

There are only 80 days until Christmas so you'll have to forgive me for posting this festive recipe!

Cherry, Almond and Orange deep filled mince pies

you will need:


three pastry cutter, one for the base, one for Marzipan and one for the lid

-3 cutters
-rolling pin
-pastry brush
-food processor *should you want to -use it to make your pastry like i did!
-a 12 hole lightly greased muffin tin

Ingredients

for the mincemeat mix 
1 small jar of either shop bought or homemade mincemeat
100g chopped toasted Almonds
100g soured cherries
2 tablespoons Cherry Brandy or Amaretto
a few drops of almond extract
the grated zest of 1/2 an orange

For the pastry

350g Plain flour

200g cold unsalted butter (in cubes)
2 heaped tablespoons caster sugar

1 large free range egg

zest and juice of 1/2 an orange

tiny pinch of salt

200g Marzipan, shop bought or homemade is fine

To glaze

1 Beaten Egg

caster sugar for sprinkling

Begin by mixing together all the mincemeat ingredients

-this should be done as much in advance as possible to allow the flavours to combine and get extra yummy!

Preheat the oven to 190c

To make the Pastry...

-put the flour, sugar, butter, salt and zest in the food processor, pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

-then beat your egg in a small jug and squeeze in the orange juice.  with the processor running slowly pour this in until the dough just comes together

-tip this onto the work top,and bring together to form a disc, wrap in cling and chill for at least 30mins

-when the pastry is cold cut off 2/3, pop the 1/3 back in the fridge

-roll it out between sheets of cling film, and work quickly as it becomes very soft as the butter warms

-cut out the large circles and gently line the tin with the discs pop then pop in the fridge whilst you roll out the marzipan and cut out the smaller rounds of this (should be about 5ml thick)

-fill the cases with a generous spoonful of mincemeat

-top with a marzipan disc, leaving enough room for the lid

-then roll out the remaining chilled dough and cut out the lids

-brush around the edges with beaten egg

-pop on the lid and gently push around the edges to secure

-brush the tops with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar

-bake for around 25-30mins until golden brown

-turn them out and pop on a wire rack to cool

they are lovely served warm from the oven but also taste fab warmed days later when the flavours have settled and matured a little

Enjoy!

Ho Ho Ho!!!

P.S.  Father Christmas will be dead chuffed with one of these on Christmas Eve!

C

xxx