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Before you make the pies you need
to either prepare your own mincemeat (a blend of dried fruits –
no MEAT involved!) or buy a jar.
Mincemeat
Prepare this at least
a few days before you make your pies.
Ingredients
150g brown sugar
200g cooking apple
1 orange or lemon
50g suet
80g currants
80g sultanas
80g raisins
25 gm chopped almonds
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp grated nutmeg.
Method
Prepare 2 clean jam jars.
Peel, core and grate apples and put into a large mixing bowl
Add sugar, spice, suet, dried fruit, nuts and grated rind and
juice of the lemon or orange.
Mix with wooden spoon until juicy.
Pack into the jam jars and cover.
Store in a cool dry place.
Stir before using.
Other ingredients such as dates or cherries may be substituted
for some of dried fruit if desired.
Mince pies recipe
Ingredients
1 jar of mincemeat
150 g plain flour
75g butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
Cold water.
Method - pastry
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl
Add the butter cut into chunks
Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour to make ‘breadcrumbs’,
as quickly as possible.
Add 3 tablespoons cold water and mix using a round bladed knife.
Carefully add more water as needed to make a dough, finish by
using your hands until you have a ball of dough which leaves the
bowl clean.
Put the dough to rest in foil or a polythene bag in the fridge
for 20 minutes before rolling out.
Method – assembling mince pies
Grease a bun tin, pre-heat oven to gas mark 6, 200ºC
Roll half the pastry out to about 3mm thick and cut 12, 7.5cm
rounds using a pastry cutter, gathering up scraps and re-rolling.
Put the pastry rounds into the bun tin and fill each one with
mincemeat, about 1 heaped teaspoonful.
Prepare the tops by cutting out 6cm circles from the remaining
pastry.
Dampen the edges of the smaller pastry rounds with cold water
and press lightly into position forming lids, sealing the edges.
Brush each one with milk and make 2 snips in the top with a pair
of scissors.
Bake near the top of the oven for 20 -25 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with icing sugar.
Delicious served warm.
Mrs Jarvis demonstrated to Year 4 how to make mince pies.
They took notes and would like to share the results with
everyone.
As we had just returned from a visit to Italy and Slovenia where
both countries had given us a gift of local flour, Year 4
decided to carry out a taste test. |
