MINCE PIES WITH SWEET PASTRY

For homemade mince pies, if you buy shop bought mincemeat then it's all about the pastry.  Here are a few variations of pâte sucrée (sweet pastry) for you to try..

Classic Pâte Sucrée:

400g Plain Flour

175 Icing Sugar, sieved

250g Unsalted Butter

2 Eggs, beaten

Pinch of Salt

Recipe from Paul Hollywood:

7oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tbsp icing sugar
3½oz unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1cm/½in cubes
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp lemon juice

Recipe from Mary Berry:

175g (6oz) plain flour
25g (1oz) icing sugar
75g (2.5oz) butter
1 egg 

Recipes from the Facebook Group "Let's Get The Nation Cooking Again"

Recipe from Glenys Lowes:

12oz Self Raising Flour

3oz Margarine

3oz Lard

3oz Sugar

1 Egg, beaten

"Glenys: Personally I always use self raising flour, I have been questioned about this but always get compliments on how good my pastry is. Add a little milk to mix, don't make it too wet.  Plenty of flour to roll out."

My mother in law always used to make shortcrust pastry with half margarine and half lard.  She taught me the ratio of half fat to flour and half water to fat and I see that this recipe has that ratio too as the combined weight of the two fats is half the weight of the flour. If you use her method of weighing the liquid then the egg (2oz) and milk combined should weigh 3oz. Half fat to flour, half sugar to fat, half egg and milk to fat. 

Recipe from Sofia Gallo:

300g 00Flour

80g Lard

100g Caster Sugar

2 Medium Eggs, beaten

Lemon Zest

"Sofia: I mix the lard and sugar first, then the flour to a sand consistency, add the lemon zest an then the eggs, a little at a time.  This is a very common recipe with Nonnas in Italy. It also makes very good biscuits too, a sort of shortbread cookie."

Recipe from Beverley Joiner:

Grate some orange zest into some cream cheese and add a dollop under the lid.

If you want to jazz up shop bought mincemeat, here's Paul Hollywood's recipe..

410g jar mincemeat

2 satsumas, peeled and segmented, or ½ x 310g tin mandarin orange segments, drained

1 dessert apple, unpeeled, cored and finely chopped

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Put the mincemeat in a large bowl. Add the mandarin or satsuma segments, chopped apple and lemon zest. Stir well, cover and leave to macerate for several hours or overnight.

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan or Gas 6, and place a baking sheet inside to heat up.

Make the pastry using the 'rubbing in' method.  Combine the flour and cubed cold fat (or grated) by gently rubbing between the fingertips and thumbs, continuing until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively use a food processor.

Add the icing sugar and then the beaten egg to form a ball of dough. Cover in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 mins to rest before using.

Lightly dust a work surface and rolling pin with icing sugar or flour. Roll out the pastry to about 1/8 inch thickness, about the thickness of a UK pound coin.  Use a fluted pastry cutter to stamp out rounds (your cutter should be slightly larger than the holes in your bun tin). You can either use a traditional bun tin or a deeper muffin tin if you like deeper mince pies. 

In a greased bun tin line each hole with one of the pastry rounds. 

Fill each pastry case with mincemeat.  Don't overfill them as they will leak and make your mince pies stick to the tin.

Bring together the pastry scraps and re-roll. Cut out lids with a smaller pastry cutter. Brush a little beaten egg around the base of the lid and it down onto the pie edge, pressing gently to seal. Try to avoid getting egg wash between the pastry and the tin as this can also lead to sticking.

Brush the tops of the mince pies with egg wash and sprinkle lightly with caster sugar.  You can also use any pastry scraps and tiny cutters to cut out shapes like holly leaves and stars to stick on the tops of your pies.  Use a sharp knife to make a small incision in the middle of the pie, or several decorative incisions, to let out the steam as they bake.

Instead of complete lids you can also use shaped cutters to put a star or tree shape on top.

Slide the bun tin onto the hot baking sheet and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.  Putting the bun tin onto the hot baking sheet ensures they have a crispy bottom.

Once cooked, set the bun tin on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes and then turn the mince pies out.  

Serve with your choice of brandy butter, cream or ice cream. 

JAM TARTS

This is a Mary Berry recipe, a childhood favourite.  The pastry is more crisp than a standard shortcrust pastry and can also be used for mince pies or other sweet tarts. You need a 12-hole bun tin.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet Pastry:

175g (6oz) plain flour
25g (1oz) icing sugar
75g (2.5oz) butter
1 egg 

Fillings:

Strawberry Jam

Blackcurrant Jam

Apricot Jam

Lemon Curd

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200c/180c Fan or Gas 6, and place a baking sheet inside to heat up.

Make the pastry using the 'rubbing in' method. Combine the flour and butter by gently rubbing between the fingertips and thumbs, continuing until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively use a food processor to combine the flour and butter. 

Add the icing sugar and then add a beaten egg to form a ball of dough. Cover in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 mins to rest before using.

Lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar.  Place the dough on top, dust with icing sugar, dust your rolling pin too.  Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 1-2mm (1/8 inch). Stamp 12 rounds from the pastry using a 8cm/3in fluted pastry cutter (your cutter should be slightly larger than the holes in your bun tin). Line each hole of a 12-hole bun tin with one of the pastry rounds and prick the base of each with a fork 3 times to prevent the pastry rising.

Slide the bun tin onto the hot baking sheet and bake in the oven for 12-15 mins, or until golden brown and crisp. Putting the bun tin onto the hot baking sheet ensures cases with a crispy bottom. Once cooked leave to cool.

Meanwhile heat your chosen filling gently in a pan, or in a heatproof jug in the microwave in short bursts, until it liquifies to a pouring consistency, then pour carefully into the pastry cases.    Leave to set.

NB: Most jam tart recipes put the jam in the pastry cases before baking but this method ensures that no jam overflows and burns and you get an even shiny jam filling. They look shop bought!

If you wanted to make "Queen of Hearts" tarts you could make hearts out of the scraps of pastry and bake them separately, placing on the jam filling as it cools.

SHORTCRUST PASTRY

Mrs. Robinson, my Domestic Science teacher at school, used to despair at my efforts to make pastry.  It was never very successful as I have warm hands and when you're making pastry everything has to be cold.  Then I discovered that I could make pastry in my Kenwood Mixer with the K-beater attachment and along with a marble rolling pin the problem was solved!  Then my Mother-in-Law shared her secret with me and I have never used shop bought pastry since.  It takes under 5 minutes to make and it's perfect every time.

INGREDIENTS
Plain Flour
Butter (at room temperature)
Water

My Mother-in-Law's secret is to use the following formula:

Half fat to flour
Half water to fat

So if you want to make some pastry to line a flan dish use 6oz flour, 3oz fat and 1½oz water.  It doesn't matter how much pastry you're making it is always the same.  Weigh the water and it's always turns out perfectly.

Another tip from my Mother-in-Law is to replace half the butter with pure lard which creates pastry with perfect texture and taste.  Or if you're looking to reduce the fat content of the pastry use half butter and half Trex which is a vegetable fat sold here in the UK.
See http://www.trex.co.uk

METHOD
Weigh all the ingredients. Place the flour and butter in a Kenwood mixer with the K-blade attached, or in a food processor with the mixing blade.  Mix until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and with the motor still running add the weighed water.  The mixture will very quickly come together into a ball. Remove the pastry ball, cover in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 mins to rest before using.

VARIATION - Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
This is Paul Hollywood's recipe.  Use the same method as above, mixing the flour and icing sugar together, adding the butter, then the egg and lemon juice:

7oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tbsp icing sugar
3½oz unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1cm/½in cubes
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp lemon juice