Mince Pies!

So, I'm off all this week spending time with the family, hence the lack of posts. It's the Spanish Christmas today so all is pretty quiet here. I decided to keep myself busy to try to make my own Mince Pies! Never done it before but my wife and mother are dab hands at it so thought I would give it a go. As it happened they didn't turn out too badly. Pastry is a bit crumbly, but otherwise I reckon I got it down. In case you wish to try yourself, here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

400 grams of Self Raising Flour
100 grams of lard
100 grams of butter
4 Tablespoons of milk
Spiced Mincemeat
Caster Sugar

You'll need:

A bowl to mix the stuff
Rolling Pin
Baking Tin (12 cakes)
Pastry Brush
2 Round pastry cutters (one smaller than the other for lid and base)


Method:

Put the flour, butter and lard in the bowl and mix together by hand until like bread crumbs. It takes a while! Then add the four tablespoons of milk to the mixture and mix all in. Knead the pastry. If it doesn't seem to be binding, add drps of milk one at a time until it does. Flour the surface and the rolling pin. Roll a portion of the pastry into a managable ball. Flatten on surface with rolling pin until pastry is about 3mm thick. Pre-prepare the baking tray by greasing with butter, and put oven on to 190. Then cut the pastry using the round cutters. Place the larger base in a space in the baking tray and place one heaped teaspoon of spiced mincemeat in it. Use the pastry brush to brush milk around the edge and the place the smaller round pastry on top. Repeat until baking tray is full. If at any time the pastry starts to break a lot, add a few extra drops of milk, knead again then roll again. Pop in the pre-heated oven until golden brown, usually take about 15 mins. Place on plate and sprinkle with caster sugar. Let them cool a little, brew a nice cuppa Rosey Lea and settle in :)


That's it! I'll post some photos when my card reader is working again.


Enjoy and Be well!