This year I’m baking all kinds of fun Christmas treats that I have never baked before.
Every year my mum would buy fruit mince pies and we would devourer them all way before Christmas, eating them one buy one with a immense amount of ice cream.
This year I thought I would make some, I also thought that I would get to eat them all myself because J doesn’t like fruit mince pie’s.
Boy was I wrong.
I made the fruit mince the same day as I made the brownie and the shortbread and lucky for me it was beneficial for the fruit mince to sit and develop its flavours, my recipe said only half an hour but I have found others that have said to let the mince sit for up to a week.
So mine sat for a week, while I waited for the weather to cool down and to find a good pastry making day.
Finally the weather cooled, so I made myself some pastry.
I used an egg cutter to cut out the pastry and lay the rounds into a small rounded muffin like tin (have searched for the name for ages, if you know if please put me out of my misery!).
They were unbelievably delicious! Yes, I was surprised! And what I was even more surprised about was the fact that I only got to eat 6, out of the 12 I made, because SOMEONE decided he actually liked fruit mince pies.
Today I will be making more.
I’m also linking up today with Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, a dessert themed blog hop. If you want to know more, visit this link and don’t forget to visit some of the other amazing blogs.
The thought had never crossed my mind to make these sweet delicious morsels of pie. Have you ever baked something on a whim and it turned out amazing?
- 1½ cups of saltanas
- 1 cup dried apricots
- ½ cup dried peaches
- 1 medium apple peeled, cored and grated
- Finely grated rind of 1 orange
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ orange liqueur (such a Cointreau or Grand Marnier)
- 1 tsp ground ciniman
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 2 cups plain flour
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tbsp chilled water
- Put sultanas, apricots, peaches, apple, rind and juice into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
- Transfer to large bowl, and add sugar, liqueur and all spices. Stir until well combined and cover in the fridge until you can find some time to make pastry.
- Sift flour and icing sugar into a large bowl, add butter and rub together until it resembles find bread crumbs.
- Add egg yolk, and water (add a little extra water if you need to but be careful not to add too much, as you can't take it out again).
- Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for no more than 30 mins.
- At this point preheat oven to 180, and grease tin.
- Roll out dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until about 4mm thick, cut round with a 7cm biscuit cutter (or an egg ring).
- Line tray with dough and spoon in 1 tbsp of mince into each.
- Re-roll left over dough and cut out small star shapes to top pies.
- Bake for 15-20 mins or until light golden and pastry is cooked through. Cool on a wire rack.
- Dust with icing sugar to serve (optional)
I love mince, and this is perfect. Just a bite, or two! Thank you so much!
The mince pies were great, homemade christmas treats!
It’s so funny when they do protest so much only to find that they like the item that they said that they didn’t! π
Yep, he loved them. In fact he should learn by now that he likes most of my baking π
I don’t mind the odd bought fruit mince pie, but home made is soooooooo much better. I always make a double batch of mince, it’s delicious with ice cream
I’ve never had home made ones before, but these ones were fantastic!
Lovely post, Clare. Don’t you love it when a kitchen experiment turns out amazingly well? Must give these a go.
They are delicious. I’ve now made two dozen, with a little tweak of the pastry and have been asked to make another 3 dozen for Christmas.
These are classic! I was half torn about making classic mince pies too (always loved the little star on top); luckily I still have some leftover pie dough and mincemeat…
Yours look delicious though. I’d love to try the slice type thing.
Spur of the moment baking is the best kind! I often find it turned out better than when I’ve really thought out and planned something. These look adorable!
These are so delightful that I’ve made them so many times since! And they’re only getting better now.
Fruit mince pies certainly vary in quality. I think the pastry to filling ratio is crucial and yours looks just fine to me. Now sugar-free? Mmmm…
Sugar free would be tough, if you’re counting the fruit as sugar? But if not I think you could leave the sugar out of the fruit mince and tweak the pastry. They’d be great!
I love them – they look awesome! I would really like to try to make mince pies myself this year – you have made it look easy π
You absolutely should give it a go! These are simple, not super time consuming and absolutely delicious.
This is very embarrassing but I have never had a fruit mince pie, am going to make it my mission this christmas – hopefully homemade!
You should definitely have one, I’m making it my mission for everyone around me to try them! However they’re not to everyone’s taste, so don’t be upset if you hate them.
They look so pretty with the stars on top! The filling looks delicious too.
By the way, I think it’s called a patty pan tin.
Yes, it is a patty tin! I’ve figured it out since. Thank you!
Aww, these look adorable!
Thanks, they were delicious and now they’re all gone!
These are adorable and your mince mixture sounds delicious! Thanks for joining the hop π
The mince mixture was divine. The pies are now my must do for every Christmas I think.
These are very cute mince pies. We always let our fruit mince sit in the fridge for about a month, so the flavours can soak into one another. Trust me, it’s worth the wait. My fruit mince is sitting in the fridge now. We have a family tradition that my mum and I always make them together on Xmas Eve to take to the family on Xmas Day. One of my favourite things about Xmas! YUM!
I think that I’ll have to start that tradition too. I loved these mince pies and am already looking forward to next year!
Your fruit mince pies look great π I developed a liking for them in the last few years so I might have to make my own. I only have a few days for my mince to sit tho π Merry Christmas!
You definitely have to give your own a go, they’re so much better then the bought ones. Next year, there’s always next year.
So cute! I love the stars pastry toppers π I often have baking wins, but also just enough baking experimental fails at the same time.. can be very hit and miss! hehe
Baking can be very hit and miss, but so great when you get it right.