Ingredients

• Ready Rolled Shortcrust Pastry (Or Make Your Own, I’ll Share How in “Eating And Storage Tips”)
• Premade Mincemeat Jar (Or Spend A Long Time Making Your Own)
• Margarine Or Butter
• Caster Sugar
• (You Might Want Cookie Cutters, I just Used a Knife)

Method

1. Get a cake or muffin tray and lightly grease it with butter
2. Cut out some pastry and place inside each tray hole
3. Add some jarred mincemeat inside, I filled them pretty high!
4. Cut more pastry and place on top, sealing the edges and cutting a little hole on top of the lid after doing this to release steam
5. If you want an extra glossy finish top with a little milk or water and sprinkle some sugar on top
6. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 200c before allowing to slightly cool and moving to a cooling rack

Eating And Storage Tips

As mentioned in the ingredients if you want to make your own shortcrust pastry simply do a ratio of two parts plain (all-purpose) flour to one part butter (best diced and at fridge temperature) crumbed together adding a few splashes of milk to bring it all together and adding a pinch of salt (with this being sweet I add a pinch of sugar too). Place it into the fridge a while to let it rest before starting to roll and cut it or you might overwork it! I love making my own pastry I just don’t have the time or a lot of kitchen space right now.

I’ve had to tell a few people that mince pies don’t actually have minced beef in and that these are completely vegetarian. So let me provide you with a little information on what actually is “mincemeat”; A lot of dried fruit such as raisins, current and orange peal. Think those dried mixed fruit bags you might get to make something like Christmas cake. There’s also sugar, suet, sometimes brandy and things like cinnamon and mixed spices in there too.

This was my first attempting in making them this way. I have made them before but not for a very long time and I’m pleased I did the practice. It reminded me to go buy cutters and to add a lot more sugar on the top of the pastry next time. Fun fact; I did the base pastry case in a 15 minute work break and popped them back into the fridge until my lunch break and finished them off and cooked them in my 30 minute lunch break! So if you’re in a real time pinch this is an incredible way to do it.

Once cooled I placed them into a sealed container and had one a day, giving a couple to my Mum and her partner, and they held up well for nearly a week. I probably wouldn’t leave them any longer than that before they do start to either go soft or stale but if you want to make them a couple of days before a party, event or Christmas you 100% can to reduce the same day stress.