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Easy Peasy Mince Pies

Classic mince pies with homemade sweet shortcrust pastry and a crunchy sugar top without any rolling!
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Chilling time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 50 minutes
Course: Dessert
Keyword: christmas, pastry, sweet pastry, traybake
Servings: 14 pies

Equipment

  • Two muffin trays

Ingredients

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

  • 350 g plain flour
  • 225 g cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 100 g golden caster sugar or white/icing sugar
  • 1 large beaten egg or two yolks for richer pastry
  • 1-2 tbsp cold water

Filling

  • 400 g store bought mincemeat

Topping

  • 1 beaten egg or milk to glaze
  • 2 tbsp demerara sugar optional
  • icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

  • In a bowl breadcrumb the cold butter into the flour. This means you rub the butter and flour between your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Can be a bit of a forearm workout, but keep with it. A few small lumps of butter is absolutely fine!
  • Mix through your sugar and salt. Add your beaten egg and mix through.
  • We now need to bring the dough together, but you only want to add enough water so that the dough just sticks together. Add a teaspoon of your cold water and lightly knead your dough. Repeat until the dough forms a ball. Stop kneading immediately. Kneading anymore will make your pastry tough and we want flaky pastry!
  • Wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 20 minutes or the fridge for 45-60 minutes to allow the butter to harden again.

Mince pies

  • Remove your pastry from the freezer. It should be firm now. If it still feels sticky, then put it back in. You'll use ⅔ of the dough to form the cases of the mince pie and the remaining ⅓ to form the lids.
  • Take a piece of dough the size of a ping pong ball and press into your muffin tin. The pastry doesn't need to come all the way up to the top. Repeat this until ⅔ of the pastry dough has been used.
  • Spoon the mincemeat evenly between the cases.
  • Finally, take half the amount of dough as before and press it into a rough circle that's big enough to cover your pies and place on top. No need to seal with water or egg. If there was any dough left up the sides of the muffin hole, I folded it down to meet the lid. Repeat for the remaining mince pies.
  • I now like to put them back in the freezer for 20 minutes. Help to make sure the pastry is flaky.
  • Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
  • Remove from the freezer and brush the tops with beaten egg and a sprinkle of demerara sugar.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then remove to a wire rack. To serve, lightly dust with the icing sugar. Easiest to do this using a sieve.

Notes

  1. Will keep for three to four days in an airtight container.