Christmas Mince Pie
To some people, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without a mince pie. While there are some good bought ones out there, they're seldom as good as the homemade version.
Ingredients
Homemade easy mincemeat 3-4 cups
- 1 lemon rind and juice
- 1 orange rind only
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 large granny smith apples chopped
- 2 cups sultanas
- 2 cups mixed dried fruit
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ cup brandy whisky, rum, sherry or port
Christmas mince pie
- sweet shortcrust pastry homemade or frozen
Instructions
Homemade mincemeat
- Peel the coloured rind from the lemon and orange with a potato peeler. Place it in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade, add the white sugar and process until the rind is very finely chopped.
- Add the brown sugar, the unpeeled apples cut into chunks, lemon juice, half the sultanas and half the mixed fruit. Process until the apple is finely chopped. Add the remaining fruit and the flavourings, and process briefly.
- You can use this immediately or transfer it to clean airtight containers and refrigerate until required (two to three weeks). Freeze for longer storage.
Christmas mince pie
- Roll the pastry until it's about three millimetres thick. Mini-muffin pans make lovely little pies. For these you'll need to cut six-centimetre rounds (use a fluted cutter, a round cutter or a glass) and press them gently into non-stick sprayed mini-muffin tins.
- Drop a heaped teaspoon of fruit mince into each one, then finish by placing pastry on top (ball up and roll out the trimmings for these).
- Bake at 180°C for 10 to 12 minutes or until the pastry begins to brown.
- If you want to make slightly larger pies in patty pans, you'll need an 8cm-9cm cutter.
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