Putting a twist on the Christmas classic means these festive sweet treats are perhaps even more delicious, particularly when served fresh out of the oven with some cream or ice cream.
Ingredients
For the mincemeat:
225 g vegetarian suet
225 g bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped
125 g candied peel, chopped
225 g sultanas
225 g raisins
225 g currants
175 g demerara sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 orange, zest and juice
60 ml brandy
For the pastry:
250 g plain flour
167 g butter, softened
83 g caster sugar
1 medium free-range egg
For the cinnamon crumble:
50 g plain flour
40 g butter diced
3 tbsp demerara sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
25 g oats
Method
For the mincemeat:
- Mix all the ingredients together and pack into sterilised jars and seal.
- This recipe will yield approximately 1800 g, so store in a cool dark place until you want to use it - you'll need around half of it for these mince pies.
For the cinnamon crumble topping:
- Rub or pulse the flour and butter together until the mix is like fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the sugar, oats and cinnamon and mix well.
For the mince pies:
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6.
- To make the pastry, rub the flour, butter, sugar and egg together with a splash of cold water until it all comes together.
- Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- Roll out the pastry to a 3mm thickness and with a pastry cutter, cut out discs of pastry.
- Press the pastry into a muffin tin and fill each one with a good helping of the mincemeat mixture.
- Top each pie with your cinnamon crumble mix and bake for 20 minutes.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack before finishing with a dusting of icing sugar.
Makes 12 mince pies.
