Mincemeat Pies, for me one of the staples of Christmas food. For others, gag worthy. Truly, I've met people who think they are absolutely vile to eat. I however love them and grew up with them in South Africa, thing is, here in the States they are not very well known and you can't find them as easily available as back home, or in England for instance.
Another thing that seems to turn people off these little pies, is that they seem to think that they are very hard to make at home, but I'm here to tell you that it really is not and they taste so much better than store bought.
You can also make the filling at home, though I usually buy the big jar. I'm pretty certain that homemade is way tastier too but I haven't had the chance to try that yet, maybe next year.
Anyway, I got the recipe for the pastry from one of my favorite Youtubers, Rebecca from Percy and Grace. This is such a quick and easy recipe and the result is a buttery tasty flaky dough, perfect for these pies.
The recipe IS in grams and I'll see if I can convert it for you all, but I would highly suggest getting a kitchen scale that uses both grams/kilos and ounces/pounds, they are a life saver, really.
Homemade Mincemeat Pies
Source: Percy and Grace
This recipe makes 12 mince pies but you could just increase or decrease the quantities to make more or less mince pies.
280g plain flour (about 2 and a 1/3 cups)
195g softened unsalted butter (about 3/4 cups)
95g caster sugar (white sugar)
2 medium eggs
1 large jar of mincemeat
Icing sugar for dusting (powdered sugar)
In a bowl, add the flour and the butter, mix with your fingertips or a knife to get a crumbly mixture. Add in one egg and mix well, dump onto a floured surface and fold the pasty dough over itself a few times, knead a little until it comes together well, try not to overmix though.
Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius/425 Farenheit.
Roll out your dough to about 3mm about an 1/8th of an inch. Using a big cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles. Butter a muffin pan, and pop one circle in each, then press and mold to size. Drop in 1 and a half tablespoons of mincemeat filling.
Beat the other egg, and using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pies. Roll out the dough again, cut out another 12 circles, top each pie with a circle, pressing down to seal. Glaze with the rest of the egg, sprinkle on some sugar and make a cut in the middle of each pie.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until nice and golden. Let cool and then pop them out of the pan and dust with icing sugar.
To store, place them in an airtight container, they will keep for about a week, but you can also freeze them for up to 3 months.
Enjoy!!!
