Mince Pies

These traditional English sweet pies are served at Christmas time. Filled with mincemeat filling which is full of dried fruits and spices. These are perfect with a cup of tea or served with a heavy pouring of cream. Step-by-step photos teach you how to make this gorgeous mince pie recipe.

Growing up mince pies were always a staple at my house, I enjoyed them when I was really little, and then I decided I hated raisins so I couldn't be bothered with mince pies. It wasn't until my 20's that I fell back in love with mince pies. It might have been something to do with pouring a ton of heavy cream on them or the warm melt in your mouth pastry. Either way these days I can't wait for Christmas time so I can stuff my face with mince pies.

Mince pies are ridiculously easy to make, part of their beauty. This is also why they are great for serving Father Christmas on Christmas eve. In America, we serve cookies to Santa but in England, we serve mince pies to Father Christmas.

Ingredients

To make mince pies you really only need two things mincemeat and pastry.

For the pastry you have a few options you can use your favorite pastry recipe, my sweet shortcrust pastry recipe, my all butter pie crust recipe, or my flaky pie crust recipe, or of course you can totally use store-bought pastry dough.

To make mini tart size mince pies you'll get about 12-14 from one standard 9-inch pie crust. For a standard American size cupcake pan size mince pies, a standard 9-inch pie crust will make 9-10. Keep in mind mini tarts will be a lot more pastry to filling ratio, whereas cupcake size ones will have more filling to pastry.

For the mincemeat, you can buy mincemeat filling at select food stores during the Christmas season. Or you can make your own mincemeat filling, which I highly recommend!

Homemade mincemeat is best made a couple of weeks before you want to use it, but you can use it right away. Mincemeat is easy to make you pretty much just dump everything into a large pot, stir, warm it slightly then plop into jars.

Instructions

Keep in mind depending on the size of your pan the amount of ingredients, measurements, and bake time will alter. I have provided information for the mini tart pan and a standard American cupcake pan.

Preheat the oven to 425F/218C and get your pan out. Your oven needs to be properly heated for the pastry to cook up to golden brown pastry perfection.

To start I used one standard 9-inch pie crust, you can use homemade or store-bought. But I highly suggest homemade!

Start by rolling your pie dough on a lightly floured surface, gently rotate the dough after every couple of rolls so the dough does not get stuck into the surface.

Roll your pie dough out into a 15-inch by 12-inch rectangle.

Use a round or round with a scalloped edge pastry cutter to cut pastry circles that will fit into the bottom of your baking tin. The mini tart pan I use comes with a pastry cutter and piece of equipment to press the pastry nicely into the tart cavities.

Sometimes a water glass has the right circumference as well! 

Gently press one pastry round into each cavity then spoon the filling in, if you are using a tart tin, generally more shallow, then you will need about 1- ½ teaspoons of filling. For a cupcake pan, the cavities are deeper so you can use around 1 heaping Tablespoon per cavity. 

You can top the mincemeat filling with another pastry round or use a star cutter to top the pies with a star. Dip your finger in a small bowl of room temperature water and gently use your finger to wet the pastry side down, this will help seal it to the bottom pastry already in the muffin tin.

Use your clean fingernail to gently press the top pastry into the bottom pastry to seal it. 

Place the tray in the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes to rechill the pastry, this helps it bake up flaky and prevent shrinking while baking.

Crack an egg into a small bowl and add a splash of water, then whisk to combine. Use a pastry brush to brush the top of the mince pies with the egg wash.

Bake for 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of your baking pan. I find the smaller tart size pies take 10-13 minutes while the cupcake size ones take 14-18 minutes, you want golden brown!

Let the pies cool for 10 minutes then use an angled spatula to remove them gently from the tin. Then give them a generous shaking of confectioners sugar.

Try not to each just one, I dare you!

How to freeze

To freeze the pies before baking prepare them up to placing the tops on, no egg wash, then place the tray in the freezer for 20 minutes, then use an angled spatula to gently remove the mince pies from the pan. Ideally, you would place the mince pies on a tray and freeze until completely solid then place them in a freezer-safe container. Freezing the pies before placing them into a container prevents the pies from sticking to each other so you can bake off one pie at a time. When baking the pies just add an additional minute or two to the bake time.

Can you double

You can easily double or triple the recipe by pressing the 2X or 3X button on the recipe card. Make sure during baking batches that you keep the pastry cold and you add them to a cold pan, a warm pan will affect the way the pastry bakes and ruin your pies, trust me, take the extra time or use multiple pans.

More Christmas recipes

During Christmas time I love to make my Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe.

You can't celebrate Christmas without some gingerbread treats, my Gingerbread Cheesecake is the perfect show stopper dessert!!

My friend Hayley makes the best fudge, this White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge is divine!!

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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