Every man to his post, Christmas is coming. Battle stations: Boxing Day is lurking just below the horizon. Beware the carol singers, the jingling bells, the paper snowflakes, baubles, and candy canes. The ticking time bomb of Advent is gradually reaching its end. Beat back the tides of droning Christmas songs and tacky decorations; they’ve claimed many of your comrades, but you refuse to give into the same old dull festive tropes. Arm yourself with these sticky apricot jam mince pies before you also fall to the crushingly repetitive clichés of the dreaded Holiday Season.
The sacred mince pie has been a staple of the traditional English Christmas dinner since 1615, so I’d say it’s time for them to be revised for a generation with a much more considerable sweet tooth. The mini pies are a British classic, found at every Christmas table and eaten through the winter months. The sweet shortcrust pastry recipe I used can be found here, and this makes about 12 mince pies with lids.
Apricot Jam Mince Pies
Ingredients
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 180ºC. Butter and line your tin(s) with baking paper. If you don’t have any paper to hand, then you can just use butter or a sprinkling of flour.
There’s more than one way to make a mince pie. I’ve chosen to go with cutting a small, round base, then separate walls, rather than one large disc of dough, because it gives more room for filling. Start by flouring your surface and rolling pin, then rolling out your dough to around a quarter of a centimetre thick.
Next, using a glass, jar, or any other appropriately-sized round thing, cut out your bases and place them in the bottom of your tin.
Using a sharp knife, cut strips of dough to form the walls. You might have to do a bit of experimenting to get the right length, but if the walls come out too tall you can always trim them. Use your fingers to join the walls and base together, again keeping an eye out for holes
With a teaspoon and a steady hand, add a dollop of mincemeat into each pie, followed by a teaspoon of apricot jam. Fill the rest with mincemeat right to the top, making sure it’s good and full.
Finally, cut yourself some lids into whatever shape you like with the remaining pastry and paint with egg wash (if you run low, you can just top it up with milk), making sure to add some between the lid and walls so they stick together.
Slap these in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they look golden brown and cooked.