I love homemade pastry but I rarely make my own, simply because I cannot stand the feeling of sticky mixture getting everywhere, under my nails and coating every surface in my tiny kitchen. If anyone out there (Father Christmas maybe) was thinking of getting us a nice present, I guess a KitchenAid would do a great job mixing and kneading for us… just saying!
Crevette and Beanie love experimenting with different textures and getting dirty, so making their own pastry for mince pies is always a winner.
They really do most of it themselves so all I have to do is a bit of kneading and tidying up.
The mixture is really easy to put together and there is no need to roll the pastry. Make little balls of dough and spread the pastry with your fingers in mini foil cases or in a muffin pan, then spoon your mincemeat in.
For the lids, my little ones like rolling the rest of the pastry and using cookie cutters to make festive shapes.
About an hour after the mince pies were cool enough to be eaten, Beanie came to me and declared enthusiastically: “I want another one!”
Me: “You’re going to be sick.”
Beanie, sulking: “I’ve only had three!”
Needless to say, she had a fourth one. Mince pies count as dinner a few weeks before Christmas, right? I had another one, too!
Quick & Easy Mince Pies
Ingredients
- • 2 cups plain flour 300g
- • 1/3 cup ground almonds 50g
- • 1 cup cold butter 225g, diced
- • ½ cup golden caster sugar 100g
- • Pinch of salt
- • 1 free range egg
- • 1 jar mincemeat 250-300g
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to gas mark 6 (200 degrees Celsius, 400 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Drop the flour and ground almonds on a clean work surface. Mix with your fingertips.
- Rub the butter into the flour and ground almonds until you get a crumb-like consistency.
- Gather the mixture and make a well in the middle. Add in the sugar, pinch of salt and two tablespoons of beaten egg.
- Combine the pastry into a ball and knead it briefly. Add some more flour if it gets too sticky.
- Keep ¼ of the pastry aside. Make 18 balls of dough with the rest. Grease and line 18 foil mini pie cases or holes of a muffin pan with pastry, spreading it with your fingertips. If you would rather roll your dough, you can do so on a floured surface.
- Spoon mincemeat into the pies.
- Roll the rest of the pastry and make lids using cookie cutters. Alternatively, you can also make round lids to cover the pies completely.
- Brush the top of each pie with a little beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden.
- Take out of the oven and after 5 minutes, remove the mince pies to a cooling rack.
Recipe Notes
The pies can be frozen, uncooked, for up to a month.
The cooked mince pies will keep for a few days in an airtight container. Simply warm them up in the oven when you are ready to eat them
A visual reminder of what to do:
Oh the mince pies are delightful and I love the idea of using the foil cases. It looks like the children had fun too.
Thanks Julie. Those mini foil cases are great. If you use the 12 holes of a muffin pan, you can just about fit the 6 little foil cases in the oven as well (or you can freeze them for another day!). x
These look amazing Mel and sound super tasty. Good luck with a secret Santa sending you a Kitchen Aid 😉
Thanks Renée. You can always dream, can’t you? To be 100% honest, I would probably not have enough room for it in my teeny kitchen, but I suppose the kettle and the toaster could go.
Those pictures of your children joining in with the pastry making are so cute. I can just imagine what a fun time it was as my eldest who is four loves joining in with baking too.
I put almonds in my mince pie pastry too, I think it really enhances the flavour.
Good luck with Santa, who really needs a kettle or toaster anyway, a kitchen aid is much prettier (especially as you apparently use your kettle to make tea that’s far too pale, it needs to be much stronger 🙂 ).
Thanks Charlotte! You made me laugh about the tea. I love my tea really strong. I definitely overexposed in the photo as it was getting a bit dark!
Aaah, the problem of winter photography. Tea colour aside I think your photos look great 🙂
Thanks a lot! xx
I love these photos Mel. (As always!) Also, the no rolling?! You’re a genius! Thanks so much for sharing and linking on #festivefoodfriday. I’ll definitely be trying the no rolling technique. x
Thanks my lovely! I have really been enjoying taking part in #festivefoodfriday. xxx
Looks like you had lots of fun! I love the photos too but how do you take such lovely photos without getting flour all over the camera?”?
I get the kids to do all the baking so all I have to do is snap away, hi hi!
Une bon travail d’équipe Mel! Tu as déjà deux chefs dans la famille 😉
J’aime beaucoup ce type des cakes, il faut vraiment que j’essai !
Dis-moi ce que tu en penses si tu en fais! xx
Those mince pies look so yummy and great to make with kids. Have pinned in the hopes of finding time to bake some with Jessica 🙂
Oh, let me know if you manage to do it! If you want to make it less messy and let her get on with it, use a large bowl. I did that with Beanie this week-end and she did it all herself. xxx
Good tip – will bear that in mind! 🙂
love the idea of adding ground almond to the pastry mix – yum! #festivefood
It really adds a little festive touch to the pastry!
Love the little stars on top! I was amused to hear you don’t like pastry under your nails – I thought you cooks loved that stuff, haha! xx
Not me! Luckily I have little people who are happy to do that at home.
Perfect mince pies! Hope to make some with gluten free flour! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x
Thanks, hun. I think Vicki (The Free From Fairy) has a recipe for gluten-free pastry. xx
These really do look easy – I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I’ve never made my own pastry, but if your children can do it I’ve got no excuse! I’m pinning this to try with my littlies over the Christmas holidays!
Let me know if you try, Grace!
Fabulous photos Mel. I haven’t tried making pastry with Potato yet, but its on my list to try soon. Mince lies are always so much nicer when you’ve made your own aren’t they. Im not the biggest mincemeat fan, but homemade mince pies are irresistible!
Thank you for linking up with #LittleChefs
Thanks lovely. I cannot stand traditional mincemeat, which is why I make a cranberry version. You should check my recipe; I think I have put a link in this post. Hopefully, you will like it!
These look really good, we have never made mince pies of our own, maybe we should!
They are really easy to make as well!