Traditional Mince Pies
Traditional mince pies are a British Christmas time favorite. They are quite easy to make at home when you use store bought mincemeat. I like to add a tart fresh diced apple to the filling to give it a nice crunch.
A word about the dough. The dough will yield 20 mini-quiche sized pies. That is about as many as I bake in one sitting. The prep and cook times also reflect making one batch of twenty pies. However, you can make 60 mini-quiche sized pies with the filling. If you plan to do this plan your time accordingly.
What you’ll Need to Make Traditional Mince Pies
How to make Traditional Mince Pies
Preheat the oven to 375F with a rack positioned in the center of the oven.
While the oven is heating, empty the jar of mincemeat into a medium bowl. Add one chopped apple. Add the grated zest of one lemon.
Mix the flour and the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Then add in the sugar.
Finally add the beaten egg and milk.
The mixture should come together to a dough as shown below. Add a little more milk if it is still too crumbly. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about one half hour.
Roll out the dough to 1/8 of an inch.
Cut out circles. For my pan, circles that are two inches in diameter work well.
Press the dough down with mini tart tamper tool and place one teaspoon of filling into the pies.
Put a little water into a small bowl. One tablespoon of water should work fine. Dip your finger into the water and run your finger along the edge of each pie.
Make cut outs to cover the pies. I started with circles that are two inches in diameter. Lay each circle flat on top of each pie.
Press to seal. I used a champagne flute to press and seal – invert the champagne flute and press down of the dough. Twist to release the excess dough. Peel away the excess dough. Note: The champagne flute I used is slightly has a diameter of slightly under 2 inches. It creates the domed look that you see in the pictures. Brush with egg wash.
Bake in the oven until the edges turn a light golden brown. Remove from oven to a wire rack and allow the pies to cool. The pies should pop out easily but if not run a blunt knife along the edge to release.
Sprinkle with a little icing sugar if desired before serving.
One jar of the mincemeat makes 60 pies. You will need to make three batches of dough to use up all the filling. The mincemeat keeps in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 27 oz mincemeat I use None Such Classic Original
- 1 medium apple I use Honeycrisp but any tart apple such as Granny Smith also works
- zest of one lemon
For the Pastry:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 cups flour
- 3-4 tbsp milk whole or 2%
To Seal:
- 1 tbsp water
To Brush:
- one egg beaten with 1 tsp of water
To Sprinkle:
- Confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F with a rack positioned in the center of the oven.
- Empty the jar of mincemeat into a medium bowl. Peel, core and chop the apple. Mix into the mincemeat mixture. Add the grated zest of one lemon. Set aside.
- Mix the flour and the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add in the sugar and mix well. Then add the beaten egg and three tablespoons of milk. The mixture should come together to a dough. Add a little more milk if needed.
- Roll out the dough to one 1/8-inch thickness and cut out the dough to large enough circles to fill the bottom a mini quiche pan. For my pan, circles that are two inches in diameter work well. Press the dough down with mini tart tamper tool.
- Place one tablespoon of the filling in the pies.
- Put a little water into a small bowl. One tablespoon of water should work fine. Dip your finger into the water and run your finger along the edge of each pie.
- Make cut outs to cover the pies. I started with circles that are two inches in diameter. Lay each circle flat on top of each pie.
- Press to seal. I used a champagne flute to press and seal. Invert the champagne flute and press down of the dough. Twist to release the excess dough. Peel away the excess dough. Note: The champagne flute I used is slightly has a diameter of slightly under 2 inches. It creates the domed look that you see in the pictures.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the edges turn a light golden brown.
- Remove from oven to a wire rack and allow the pies to cool.
- Run a blunt knife if needed, around the edge to release. The pies should come out easily.
- Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar if desired.
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
Ginny’s Recipe Collection provides nutritional breakdowns for informational purposes only. The data on this site has not been evaluated and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The data is calculated using an online 3rd party nutritional calculator. Therefore these figures should be considered as estimates only. Online calculators may yield different results based on their own nutritional fact databases and algorithms they use. Furthermore, varying factors such as product types, adjustment of seasonings, natural variation in produce, and the manner in which they are processed may affect the final nutritional information. To get the most accurate analysis, please consult a registered dietician.
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