In time for the festive season, Victoria Hansen shows her foolproof way of baking fruit mince pies.
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Fruit Mince Pies
Preparation and cooking times for these will depend on whether you do all the steps one after another or make the mince in advance and allow it to develop. You can also use bottled fruit mince and frozen pastry if it's easier.
Fruit Mince - Makes approximately 4 cups
Zest and juice of 1 lemons
Zest and juice of 1 oranges
110g apples, unpeeled, cored and chopped (cooking apples are best)
110g candied citrus peel, cut into small pieces
225g cranberries
25g slivered almonds
175g raisins
110g sultanas
110g currants
175g brown sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
.25 tsp ground cinnamon
Freshly grated nutmeg
110g suet, shredded (available from your butcher)
3 Tbsp brandy, dark rum or whisky or a mixture of all
Short Crust Pastry - Makes approximately 12 pies
250g plain flour
125g unsalted butter, chilled and finely chopped
1 egg, chilled
Pinch salt
1 Tbsp water, chilled
Method
To Make the Fruit Mince
- Stir and mix all the ingredients together very thoroughly then cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave the mixture in a cool place overnight or for 12 hours, so that the flavours have a chance to mingle and develop.
- After that, pre-heat the oven to 120oC, then cover the bowl loosely with foil and place in the oven for 3 hours. (Fermentation used to be a problem with mincemeat because sometimes the apples gave off too much juice, which would then ferment and bubble over during storage. In this method the suet is rendered down to a liquid fat, which then coats all the fruits, and seals in the juices. This way, you'll never have any problems
