Traditional Mince Pies

In case you are not already sick of them already, here is another mince pie recipe to add to the collection! I personally love them, and could eat them all year-round. I decided this year to make my own pastry (I know, too much time on my hands!) and since there are so many to choose from, I picked one that was described as 'short and melt-in-your-mouth'. The recipe is a Paul Hollywood one, who I definitely trust, and boy was I right! This pastry is so good, I mean, it literally crumble in your mouth but still holds it's shape. It tastes so buttery too!

Hope you like! I would love to hear which mince pie recipe you rely on each year!

Ingredients
375g plain flour
260g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
1 large egg + 1 for the glaze
A jar of mincemeat
Icing sugar for dusting

1. Put flour and butter cut into small pieces into a bowl, and rub until at crumb consistency. 
2. Add the sugar and egg and mix until combined into a dough. Tip out onto your surface and do what the French call 'Fraiser', which is basically when you blend the dough together with your hands. Be careful not to overwork it though. 
3. Wrap into cling film and chill for 10 minutes in the fridge. If you leave it for too long it will harden (this is what I ended up doing) and it will take a while to become soft in order to roll it out!
4. Heat the oven to 220c/200fan/gas mark 7. Roll out the dough to 3mm thick and cut out using a round cutter. You need to do big circles for the base of the pie and smaller ones for the lid. You can measure this easily by just placing the cutter over the pan you are going to use, and if it's slightly larger, then that's the one to use! I decided to use my star cutter for my lids!

5. Press your bottoms of the pie into the muffin tin carefully, and then fill with a couple of spoonfuls of mincemeat! 

6. Next you need to get your extra egg and beat it lightly. Use this to glaze the edges of your pies. This also helps your tops to stick, which is the next step: top with your lids! Glaze those as well after, then give them a little prick with a fork in order to let out the steam. You will notice in the next picture that I decided to fill some of mine with leftover jam, as I thought I would make some jam tarts whilst I was at it!

7. Sprinkle with caster sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool and then dust with icing sugar.