Christmas Snowflake Mince Pies

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Christmas Snowflake Mince Pies

25th December 2023

Happy Christmas! Mince pies with sponge tops and a dusting of icing sugar over a Christmas snowflake stencil.

Christmas Snowflake Mince Pies Recipe

Prep Time: 50 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Cooling/Decorating Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours

Servings: 24

List of equipment needed:

Scales, x2 Shallow cupcake/mince pie trays, Large bowl, Tablespoon (Tbsp), Teaspoon (Tsp), Rolling pin, large cookie cutter (I use 8.5cm), Spatula, Sieve, Cooling rack.

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

365g / 13 oz Plain flour
250g / 9 oz Block butter (extra 10g for greasing)
110g / 4 oz Caster sugar
1 whisked Medium egg

For the sponge mixture:

140g / 5 oz Baking butter
140g / 5 oz Caster sugar
2 Whisked Large eggs
140g / 5 oz Self raising flour
1 tsp flavouring (vanilla extract)

For the filling/decoration:

1 Large jar of mincemeat
Icing sugar (for dusting over the top)

Instructions

For the shortcrust pastry:

Preheat the oven to 190⁰c, Fan 170⁰c, Gas 5, 375⁰F.
Rub the flour, cold butter and caster sugar until you achieve a breadcrumb texture, try not to over rub the ingredients.
Add the whisked egg, bring the mixture together using your hand until the mixture forms a firm dough, do not overwork the dough as it will become hard to roll and more likely to shrink when baked.
Tip out the dough onto a clean floured worktop. Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in a fridge for at least 20 minutes. If made the day before you will need to bring it out 10 mins before use.
Lightly grease the tins with butter.
Lightly flour the rolling pin before using. Roll out the pasty to roughly 0.5 cm in height. Make sure you keep the work top well floured to stop the pastry from sticking.
Using the large cutter, cut out 24 discs and then place in the tin. Gently press the pastry down into the Individual cups.
Fill the individual lined cups with a teaspoon of mincemeat, do not overfill, just enough to cover the bottom.
Set aside and make sponge topping.

For the sponge:

Cream the sugar, butter and flavouring together until light in colour and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time. If the mixture curdles it can be brought back together when adding the flour.
Sift the flour and fold into the mixture with a spatula.
Using a teaspoon, place the sponge mixture on top of the partly filled pastry cases making sure the mincemeat is covered. The level of sponge mixture should not exceed the height of the pastry case.
Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow to cool in the trays for 5 minutes before removing the mince pies onto a cooling rack.
If the mince pies are sticking to the trays carefully use a spoon to scoop them out of the tin.

For the decoration (optional):