Traditional Mince Pies

Proper old fashioned mince pies the way my mother and grandmother made them, these Traditional Mince Pies feature an unsweetened shortcrust pastry base, filled with delicious traditional mincemeat (ideally homemade!) and topped with a full pastry lid. They may be old-fashioned, but in the best possible way – a tried and true classic!

Course Dessert, Pudding, Snacks

Cuisine British

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Chilling Time 20

Total Time 1

Servings mince pies

Calories 228kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

400 g plain flour (US - all purpose flour), plus extra for dusting
200 g salted butter fridge cold - cut into 1cm / ½inch cubes (plus extra for greasing)
Cold water
2 x 411g jars mincemeat (See Note 1)
A little milk
3 tablespoons icing sugar

You will also need

2 standard cupcake trays (24 holes in total)
1 fluted 3 inch (7½ cm) pastry cutter
1 fluted 2½ inch (6½ cm) pastry cutter

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Place the flour in the bowl (you can sieve it if you like, but I never bother) and add the cubes of cold butter. Rub the butter and flour between your fingers (as if you are trying to rub the flour into the butter) until it resembles breadcrumbs. (See Note 2.)
Stir in a tablespoon of cold water and stir into the butter/flour mixture thoroughly. Add another tablespoon of cold water and stir in thoroughly. Repeat this process until the mixture just starts to come together. Don’t add too much water!
As soon as your pastry starts coming together, stop adding water and use your hands to squish the pastry together into a ball.
Split the pastry in two balls – roughly 400g and 250g (or whatever is left). Wrap each ball of pastry in clingflim, or place in a polythene bag, and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
While you are waiting, grease the holes of your cupcake tray, using a little butter on some baking paper and preheat your oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F.
After the 20 minutes is up, take the larger ball of pastry out of the fridge.
Sprinkle your work surface with a little flour and pop your ball of pastry on top. Sprinkle some more flour on top of the pastry, then roll your pastry out as thin as it will go.
Using the larger fluted cutter, cut out 24 circles and place them into the greased holes of your cupcake trays. (If you find you run out of pastry before you have 24 circles, squish together the pastry, roll it into a ball and roll out thinly again – keep doing this until you have 24 circles.)
Put 2 teaspoonfuls of mincemeat in the centre of each circle.
Now, take the smaller ball of pastry out of the fridge, add to it any scraps left over from the larger ball. Sprinkle your work surface with a little flour and pop your ball of pastry on top. Sprinkle some more flour on top of the pastry, then roll your pastry out as thin as it will go.
This time use the smaller fluted cutter to cut out 24 smaller circles. Dampen the edges of the smaller circles of pastry with a tiny bit of water and place them lightly on top of the mince pie, to form lids. Lightly press down to seal the edges.
Using a pastry brush, brush a little milk over the tops. (Not 100% necessary, but it makes the mince pies go a more golden colour.) Then make 3 snips in the tops with a pair of kitchen scissors. (See Note 3.)
Put the mince pies in your preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden on top and fully cooked.
Take your mince pies out of the cupcake tins and place them on a wire rack to cool – I find it easiest way to do this is to lever the mince pies out with a dessert spoon – take care not to burn yourself as they will be super-hot!
Once the mince pies have cooled down for about 5 minutes, put a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar into a sieve and dust the icing sugar all over the mince pies. (You can use an icing sugar dredger if you prefer.)
The mince pies can be eaten warm or cold, on their own or with cream or custard.
When the mince pies are completely cool they can be stored in a cake tin, or other air tight container… that is if there are any left!

Notes

For best results, use homemade mincemeat. If you prefer to use shop-bought mincemeat, I recommend Tesco Finest Ruby Port Mincemeat or Marks and Spencer Classic Mincemeat.
You can of course make the pastry in a food processor, if you prefer. Just pop the flour and the cubed butter in your processor and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add the water drop by drop and pulse until it starts to come together, then take the pastry out of the processor and roll it into a ball by hand.
These 3 snips are essential to ensure the steam escapes. If you don’t do these 3 snips, the lids will pop off instead and the finished result won’t look so pretty.
Suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition