Save time this Christmas by whizzing up some special mincemeat, unwrap some all-butter ready-made pastry, and discover just how easy it is to make a plateful of fragrant home-baked mince pies.
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Yields:
24 serving(s)
Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
10 mins
Total Time:
25 mins
Cal/Serv:
140
Ingredients
5
ready-to-eat dried figs, finely chopped
5
ready-to-eat dried prunes, finely chopped
150g
(5oz) sultanas
150g
(5oz) raisins
50g (2oz) dried cranberries, chopped
50g
(2oz) pecan nuts, chopped
1
juicy ripe pear, skin on, grated, core and stalk discarded
50g
(2oz) light muscovado sugar
2Tbsp.
fine-shred orange marmalade
100ml
(3½fl oz) Grand Marnier
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
A little flour to dust
375g
pack sweet shortcrust all-butter pastry
Fresh cranberries to decorate
1
egg
1tsp.
vanilla extract
1tsp.
icing sugar, plus extra to dust
Directions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 220ºC (200ºC fan) mark 7. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except the pastry, egg, vanilla extract, icing sugar and fresh cranberries. Whiz a quarter of the mix in a processor to form a purée. Return the purée to the original bowl and stir well.
Step 2
Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll out the pastry to a thickness of 3mm (1/8in). Using a 6.5cm (2½in) fluted cutter, stamp out 24 rounds. Use these to line two 12-hole patty tins. Re-roll the pastry to a similar thickness and stamp out 48 holly leaves using a 3cm (1¼in) holly leaf cutter.
Step 3
Spoon a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat into each pastry round, then top with two holly leaves and a fresh cranberry. Beat the egg, vanilla extract and icing sugar in a bowl, then brush over the leaves and exposed pie edges. Bake for 10-12min until golden. Cool on a rack.
Step 4
Dust with icing sugar and serve with brandy butter.
Step 5
To store: Prepare the pies to the end of step 3, transfer to an airtight container and keep for up to three days. To serve: Complete recipe.
Two batches: This makes enough filling for 36 mince pies. Keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one month, and use half a pack of pastry to make another batch.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
