Festive Mince Pies!

Hey guys!

I'm here with a festive post! For the last couple of weeks I've been so busy with Christmas coming up it seems like I'm always busy baking, one of the things I always bake over the festive period is mince pies. My family loves these and they go in an instant, so this year I thought I do a slight twist on them and they went down a treat.

Lets get started.

For the pastry you will need:

375g/13oz Plain flour

250g/9oz Butter, softened

125g/4oz Caster sugar

1 egg

For the filling and glaze you will need:

1 jar of mincemeat

Chocolate chips, as many or as little as you like

1 egg

Method:

Rub the butter and flour together to form a crumble like mixture, the add the sugar and give it a quick mix. Finally add the egg and combine together until it forms a ball of dough, add a splash of water if needed. Try not to over work the dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 10-20 minuets.

Once chilled take out of fridge and place on a floured surface and roll out until the pastry is about 3mm thick. (I find cutting my dough in half and rolling it out like that gives me more of and even thickness). Once rolled cut out disks that are just bigger then the dips in your muffin tins, and place into your tin. Once you've done that you can add a teaspoon of mincemeat then a spoonful of chocolate chips. You can as much or as little chocolate as you want. Then use a slightly smaller cutter and cut out the tops. Place over the mince meat and pinch the edges together. ( I get about 24 mince pies out of this mixture). Then beat an egg and brush over the tops, you can add some decoration with any left over pastry if you want just make sure you egg wash it. Then place in a preheated oven at 180oc and bake for 20 minuets until golden brown. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool, then serve.

Here's a few picture of the process.

Cutting out the pastry.

 What the mixture looks like with the chocolate.

With the lids on.

Here's what they look like once they are baked and cooked.

I hope you enjoyed this twist on a classic, I will defiantly be making these every Christmas from now on!

Have a good day!

Elizabeth Jane

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