These are Christmas Mince Pies done my way! Made with puff pastry, dried fruit, nuts and a sweet, sticky sauce! So simple to make, and the perfect festive treat! It isn’t Christmas without Mince Pies!

Happy Thursday! Only 1 week ’til Christmas and It’s day four of my Countdown ’til Christmas – I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until, and including, Christmas Eve. So far I have posted Spiced Caramel, a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake and Peppermint Puppy Chow – today I have Mince Pies.

The title here might be a tad misleading, as it could look like I’m saying these are my famous mince pies or something – but actually, this is the first time I’ve ever made mince pies. The reason being that I don’t like mince pies, I never have – I don’t like mince meat, I can’t even put my finger on what it is I don’t like about it, I just don’t. So, I made my own version of mince meat – it has the same core flavours of mince meat but it’s not baked and it’s super yummy. I also used puff pastry as the casing, just because I thought a mince pie roll would be really cute and yummy, and I was right! 

For those of you unfamiliar with mince pies, they’re a British staple at Christmas time. They’re small, individual pies filled with mincemeat – mincemeat being a sweet mixture of dried fruits, brandy, spices and beef suet (I think traditionally they contain actual beef, hence the name). Most Brits will tell you Christmas isn’t complete without lots of mince pies, so I always kind of felt like I was missing out. Which is why this year I decided to come up with my own version – mine contain lots of dried fruits, spices, almonds, spiced rum and a sweet, sticky brown sugar mixture. They were so yummy, I will definitely make it a tradition to make these every year. I’m going to make some more for Christmas day and bring a little British tradition (even if it’s not totally traditional) to the US. Although I will be making them in a pie crust casing rather than the puff pastry. 

Even if you’re a big lover of mince pies, you should definitely give these ones a go if only to shake things up a bit – plus I think you’ll love them, they’re wonderfully sweet and packed full of yummy fruit. The main star in these is dried figs because I love figs, but you really can customise these to suit your own tastes. 

One small confession before I get on with the recipe – I didn’t make the puff pastry for these. Making your own pastry is great and I find making puff pastry quite therapeutic but sometimes I’m just too lazy or I don’t have the time, or both. This was one of those times. They’re great either way, so you can either buy pre made puff pastry from the store or make you’re favourite recipe. I don’t have a recipe for puff pastry on my blog, but Dini @ Giramuk’s Kitchen has an awesome recipe for Rough Puff Pastry which is a quick and effective way to make puff pastry from scratch. 

I’m going to bring these along to Fiesta Friday this week, bring a little British Christmas to the party! This week it’s co hosted by the amazing Indu and Jhuls, so this week is a great time to come join Angie’s party!

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Michelle's Mince Pies

2014-12-17 23:35:36

Yields 12

My own take on the British classic - mince pies!

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Ingredients

1. 320g puff pastry (homemade or store bought)
2. 60g butter
3. 100g brown sugar
4. 2.5 tbsp golden syrup*
5. 2 tsp vanilla
6. 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
7. 1/4 tsp nutmeg
8. 1/4 tsp almond extract
9. 1 clementine - zest and juice
10. 140g dried figs, roughly chopped
11. 100g dried cherries
12. 100g raisins
13. 50g slivered almonds, plus more for garnish

Instructions

1. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with circles of parchment paper. Preheat oven to 200C/390F
2. Add the butter, sugar and golden syrup to a medium saucepan, heat on medium until butter and sugar are melted, stirring. Bring to the boil and boil for 30 seconds, reduce heat to a low medium.
3. Add the spices, extracts, zest and juice and stir to combine
4. Add remaining ingredients and stir.
5. Cook for 10 minutes on a medium low heat, stirring frequently.
6. Remove from heat and set aside and leave to cool.
7. Roll out puff pastry into a large rectangle, approx 14" x 9"
8. Spread the cooled mincemeat mixture over the pastry, covering up to the edges - leaving a small border clear on one length side (about 1cm)
9. Roll the pastry up length ways (i.e. so you have one long sausage).
10. Cut the roll into approximately 1"-1.5" slices and place in prepared muffin hold, with spirals facing up. Sprinkle a few slivered almonds on top.
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until pastry is gold brown

Notes

1. *If you're in the US you can use corn syrup in place of golden syrup
2. You could also use muffin cases instead of the parchment paper, but personally I like the look the parchment paper gives them.
3. And since you're using cases, you can cool them in the pan without worrying about them sticking. However, if you want to remove the cases this is much easier to do while they're still hot, so leave to cool for 5 minutes and then carefully peel away paper.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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