This is the perfect festive pie for mince pie lovers & haters (but bad for almond haters). This combines a mince pie & a Bakewell – which is a great way to get mince pie haters to love mince pies, or at least a version of a mince pie. This elevates a mince pie from an afternoon snack to a fully fledged dessert when served warm with heaps of double cream.
This combines an extra short, melt in the mouth shortcrust, sweet mince meat & a buttery frangipane. An unbeatable combo. Speaking of melt in the mouth pastry, I’m gonna share with you the well kept secrets of keeping your pastry as short & crumbly as possible:
- Keep it as cold as possible
- Handle it as little as possible to stop gluten developing
Name a better way to get into the Christmas spirit than baking (& subsequently eating) a batch of these while watching a Christmas movie.
Frangipane Mince Pies
Makes 12 | 40 mins prep / 30 mins cooking (+2hour min chilling)
Ingredients
Pastry:
175g chilled unsalted butter
250g (+1tbsp) plain flour
1tbsp caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
2-3tbsp ice cold water
Frangipane:
125g butter, room temp
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, room temp
125g ground almond
30g plain flour
Pies:
12tsp mince meat
Method
- Cut the butter for the pastry into cubes, toss with 1tbsp of plain flour and put in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Add the remaining flour, sugar & salt to a food processor & pulse to combine. Add the cold butter and pulse to form a breadcrumb-like texture. (See the note if you are making the pastry by hand)
- Add in the egg yolk & blend to combine. Then add the water in small amounts, blending to form a dough that sticks together when squished in your hand. You want to add as little water as possible to reach this stage, so add it in stages.
- Tip the dough onto a work surface and kneed very lightly until it just comes together to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 2 hours.
- In the meantime, make the frangipane. Beat the butter & sugar together. Then add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well between each addition.
- Add the ground almonds and sift in the flour and stir to combine
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan
- Remove the pastry from the fridge & cut in half, return half to the fridge.
- Roll the other half out on a lightly floured surface to just under 0.5cm thick. Cut into rings big enough to line your muffin tin.
- Push the pastry disks into the tin. Use a small ball of pastry offcuts to push the dough into the bottom of the tin & into the edges. Squish any offcuts together & return to the fridge
- Repeat with the other half of dough & any offcuts (don’t re-roll the dough more than once, after this it’ll start to get tough).
- Once all 12 holes are lined, start on the filling. Spoon in 1tsp of mince meat into the base of each pastry case & spread to an even layer. Spoon on ~1tbsp of frangipane on top & spread flat (this should be very close to the top of the pastry case)
- Bake for 25-30 mins until golden.
- Dust with icing sugar & serve warm with heaps of double cream
Note: To make your pastry without a food processer, combine the flour, salt & sugar in a bowl. Add in the ice cold butter and rub with your fingers to form a breadcrumb texture. Add in the egg yolk & stir with a palette knife until combined, then add water in small amounts & stir to form a dough that sticks together when squished.
Bakes By Meg 