Aren’t these individual mince pies adorable? I’m pretty taken with them myself. Wouldn’t they look so festive at a holiday party, cookie exchange or even as the end to a jolly Christmas dinner?
I couldn’t just give you a recipe for sweet, spicy apple mincemeat, tell you that it makes an absolutely smashing pie filling — yes, I’m feeling rather British today — and then not give you a recipe for mince pies, could I? That would be the height of thoughtlessness.
So I am back again with a recipe for shortcrust pastry and instructions on how to turn those pints of mincemeat that you made last week into individual mince pies.
What is shortcrust pastry and how does it differ from pie dough? That’s a great question. One to which I cannot find a precise answer. I think what the Brits call shortcrust pastry, the French call pâte brisée (pat bree-ZAY) and Americans call pie crust are all very similar.
All of these terms describe a flaky, unleavened dough of flour, fat, salt, possibly sugar and a little water to hold it together. I always use butter as the fat in my pastry because I think it has the best taste but lard, shortening, and beef suet (ewwww) are other possibilities.
When working with pastry, the best thing you can do, in my opinion, is to build in time to chill the dough. That allows the gluten in the flour, that you may have developed by kneading or rolling, to relax. Developing the gluten too much and not giving it time to relax will cause your pastry to be tough and not deliciously flaky. That’s why I tend to make my pastry the night before I plan to bake it. This has the added benefit of spreading the work out over two days.
To bake these adorable individual-sized mince pies, use a regular muffin or cupcake tin. Cut the dough into four-inch rounds and use them to line the cavities of the muffin tin. Then fill the dough with the mincemeat and top with more dough. I’ve cut the tops for my pies into hearts but you could just make circles again, or use another shape like stars.
(I’m going to give you a little tip that I didn’t put in the recipe: before adding the mincemeat filling to the pie shells, sprinkle the bottoms with a little cinnamon sugar or even just plain sugar. It will keep the filling from making the dough soggy.)
The recipe for the dough will give you enough for two dozen of these individual pies, if you gather up the scraps from cutting the shapes the first time and roll out the dough again. You will use two pints of mincemeat to fill the pies, making the four pints we made last week not seem like so much.
So channel your inner Mrs. Weasly and make some mince pies for your friends and family this holiday season. You will have a lot of fun making them and the results are guaranteed to impress.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 oz cold butter, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup ice water
- 1 quart or 2 pints mincemeat
- Whole milk or cream
- Turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the chilled butter to the dry ingredients and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Add 10 tablespoons of ice water to the butter-flour mixture, and process several more times. Pinch a bit of the dough, and if it holds together, you do not need to add more liquid. If it is still dry, add the remaining liquid, 1⁄2 tablespoon at a time.
- Turn the down out onto a floured board and knead until it forms a ball. Divide the dough in half and wrap each portion well in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator to relax for at least a half hour but preferably for several hours.
- Remove one half of the dough from the refrigerator. If chilled for more than a half hour, allow it to soften a little before rolling it out.
- Prior to rolling out the dough, strike it several times with your rolling pin; this will soften it further. Liberally dust a pastry board or mat and a rolling pin with flour.
- Roll the dough out in a circle, rotating it and turning it frequently, adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thick.
- Using a round cookie cutter or the top of a glass 4 inches in diameter, cut out 12 circles of dough. Gather the scraps and wrap again in plastic and chill.
- Spray a 12-cavity muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the dough circles into the cavities of the muffin tin and press them into the edges.
- Chill the dough in the muffin tin while you roll out the second piece of dough.
- Roll out the remaining half of the dough in the same manner. Using a shaped cookie cutter, such as a heart or a star, that is just smaller than the top of the muffin tin, cut out 12 shapes to be the tops of the pies. Gather the leftover scraps of dough, wrap and chill.
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Fill each pie with two heaping teaspoons of mincemeat. Cover with shaped top. Brush top lightly with cream or milk and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack prior to removing from pan.
- Roll out remaining dough and repeat the process. You should be able to get another enough dough for another dozen pies.
Looks delicious and the hearts are a beautiful touch! Carolyn @ Cabot
Thank you! Stars are more traditional but my heart-shaped cookie cutter was just the right size.