Ingredients
Scale
- 6oz-10oz Homemade Mincemeat or Store-bought
- 1-9-inch Homemade Flaky Pie Crust or Butter Pie Crust or Sweet Shortcrust Pastry or Store-bought
- Water to bind the crust
- Egg
- Confectioners Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven t0 425F/218C and get your pan out, you can use a mini tart pan or cupcake tin.
- On a lightly floured work surface using a rolling pin, roll your pie dough out into a 15-inch by 12-inch rectangle. Use a round pastry cutter or round with a scalloped edge pastry cutter to cut pastry circles that will fit into the bottom of your baking tin. 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- 1/2 Teaspoons of filling. For a cupcake pan, the cavities are deeper so you can use around 1 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 re-chill 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 pastries 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, or until golden brown. Let the pies cool on a wire rack for ten minutes then use an angled spatula to gently remove and dust them with a shower of confectioners sugar. Store leftovers in an airtight container.
Notes
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.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 18
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: British
