The first recipe in this series is inspired by Jenny Bromham’s “A Winter’s Tale”. Luxury mince pies are a very significant part in this story and so it felt right to honour that with something special. The zesty sweet pastry smells amazing while chilling in the fridge, so your home will be filled with that heavenly Christmas smell even before the pies start cooking! 

**This is a gluten free recipe but you can sub in normal flour, just be sure not to work the dough as much if you do. 

Ingredients for 12 pies 

For the Pastry:

• 4 tbsp of single cream
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of half an orange 
• Zest of half a lemon 
• 1 and 1/4 cups gluten free plain flour/normal plain flour 
• 2/3 cup icing sugar plus 2-3 tbsps for dusting
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (113g) cold unsalted butter — (if you have salted butter just omit the 1/4 teaspoon of salt)

For the filling:

Luxury mincemeat of choice. This recipe uses Tesco’s Ruby Port Mincemeat

Equipment Note:

We used foil tins here but you could use a tart baking tray (you could also use a cupcake baking tin but as they are deeper you’ll get less pies to adjust for the extra space). Note that if you use foil tins they will be too small to go in a cupcake tin for baking but they will be fine in a baking tray spaced out. 

Make sure your circular cutter is a little bigger than your tin/tray of choice to ensure you have enough to cover it. 

We used a shaped cutter for the top but you could use a circular one if you’d prefer a closed pie lid. 

Method

1. In a bowl, whisk together one egg yolk, cream, and vanilla with the zests of the lemon and orange. Set aside cream mixture.
2. In another bowl, add your flour, icing sugar, butter and salt then use a pastry cutter to work the mixture until it the butter is well incorporated. You can also use a food processor or your fingers here — it’s down to preference! 
3. Add in your cream mixture then combine until a dough forms — we used a silicone spoon at first then hands to gently knead into a soft dough.
4. Shape into a ball, wrap in fling film and then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour/one hour. You can keep this in the fridge for a few days if you are preparing in advance or freeze. 
5. After chilling, take the dough out and split it in half. Keep your surface and rolling pin generously floured to avoid sticking. Roll out the dough to your preferred thickness. This recipe is about 2 — 3mm.
6. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (non fan) or 180 degrees (fan).
7. Back to pastry: Use your cutters to create your pie base and lids, then press your pie bases into the foil tins or your tray of choice. 
8. Fill the pie bases with about 2.5 teaspoons of mincemeat, then add your pie lid. Once you’ve finished, beat the other egg yolk and brush the tops with it.
9. Place in your oven: for a non-fan oven 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until the pies are turning gold. For a fan oven 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the pies are turning gold. 
10. When cooked, remove pies from oven and leave to cool.
11. Once cool, use a sieve to shake over the icing sugar. 

You could also eat these warm if desired, straight from the oven with custard or vanilla icecream! 

We hope you enjoy Sarah’s Luxury Mince Pies!