Place the plain flour and cubed butter in a large mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar. Then stir in 1½ beaten eggs – or until the pastry starts to come together. If 1½ eggs is not enough liquid, use a tiny bit of water to help the pastry come together.

Bring the pastry together into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and place in the fridge for 1 hour. (Also put the remaining ½ beaten egg in the fridge, covered, until needed for egg-washing later.)

After 55 minutes, grease a fluted tart tin with butter and preheat your oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F. Place a baking tray in the oven to heat up (This will provide extra heat to the base of the tin, to help avoid a soggy bottom!)

Roll your pastry out on a floured surface until it is big enough to completely line the tin (with some overhang / offcuts for the stars).

Line your greased tin with the rolled-out pastry, taking care to press the pastry into the edges and indentations of the tin, then trim off the excess pastry / overhang. (I find the easiest way to do this is to roll the rolling pin over the top of the tin.

Fill the pastry tart with the mincemeat, taking care to ensure it is spread out all the way to the edges and completely flat.

Gather the pastry offcuts up into a ball and roll out, on a floured surface, to a thickness of approximately 3mm.

Use star shaped cutters to cut out stars of assorted sizes. Place the stars on top of the mincemeat to make an attractive pattern.

Brush the top edge of the tart and the stars with the remaining beaten egg.

Place the tart on the pre-heated baking tray, in your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until nicely browned on top. The mincemeat should be just gently bubbling, and the pastry should be fully cooked - including on the bottom - after this length of cooking time.

Remove from the oven when cooked and allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin, or until cool enough to handle safely.

When cool enough to handle, remove the tart from the tin (carefully as the pastry will be fragile!) and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

When cool, dust with icing sugar (use either an icing sugar dredger or a sieve), so it has the appearance of having been lightly dusted with snow.

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.