Deep or shallow, big or small, puff pastry or shortcrust; I’m not fussed what shape or form my Christmas mince pies take (although I’d rather they weren’t too true to their medieval origins of steak, suet, rosewater and mace). However, I do insist that they are made with a generosity of spirit. That means all-butter pastry, a plump filling and a decent whack of alcohol — and no, cheap cooking brandy won’t do.
Most people agree on the contents of the mincemeat — a mix of currants, raisins, sultanas, mixed peel, apples, suet, sugar, brandy and spice, sometimes almonds too — but they all have different ideas on how to prepare it.
James Martin simply stirs it all together and leaves it for at least a fortnight in the fridge. Delia insists on cooking hers for three hours in a low oven “to prevent the fruit from fermenting” and then stores it for up to three years. Mary Berry likes to use grated butter instead of suet — which is good news for vegetarians — and lets it simmer for ten minutes. Myrtle Allen insists you should bake your apples first and steep the mincemeat in whisky instead of brandy.
I can’t help feeling, though, that in this largely post-larder world of ours it’s no longer practical to store serried ranks of home-made mincemeat in the kitchen — so I always reach for the ready-made. It’s what Marcus Wareing does too in his new book, Marcus at Home. He jazzes it up with extra prunes, cranberries, apple and orange zest, and a nip more brandy, which strikes me as a very definite tick in the generosity box. Do buy the best-quality ingredients you can, though — cheap, gritty vine fruit are the downfall of many an otherwise respectable pie — and be generous with it. No one likes a half-filled pie.
Next we move on to the pastry. As I say, I quite like a mince pie made with flaky, all-butter puff pastry, but I recognise shortcrust is more of a crowd pleaser. Richard Bertinet, the Bath-based baker, taught me to make the best pastry and it’s his recipe I always turn to.
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He has two clever tips. The first is always to use butter from the fridge, but to bash it with a rolling pin several times to achieve a chilled butter with the right consistency. The second is to rub the pieces of butter and flour through thumb and forefinger as if dealing a pack of cards and to stop once the pieces are the size of your small fingernail. If you keep going you run the risk of making your pastry tough.
I like to substitute some of the flour with ground almonds and stir in a little tangerine zest to add interest. After this, Bertinet and I part company. He (and Wareing) like a pie topped not with a pastry lid, but an almond frangipane. Delicious it is too, but I have to discount it on the grounds that you can’t lift the lid and add clotted cream and another splash of brandy. Which, I think we can all agree, is the entire point of a mince pie.
Tony Turnbull’s mince pies
Makes 18-24
Ingredients
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For the pastry
250g flour
100g ground almonds
125g butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
125g icing sugar
Zest of 2 tangerines (optional)
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
500g mincemeat (see above)
Milk or beaten egg to glaze
Method
1 Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix in the ground almonds. Take the butter from the fridge and bash several times with a rolling pin to soften slightly. Slice the butter and add to the bowl with a large pinch of salt. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour, stopping when the flecks of butter are the size of your small fingernail.
2 Add the icing sugar and tangerine zest, if using, and stir through. Now add the eggs and press the dough together. Don’t worry if you can still see flecks of butter — they will disappear when you roll the pastry out. Wrap in greaseproof paper and leave to rest in the fridge for an hour.
3 Lightly grease two 12-hole tart tins. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 3mm and cut out rounds of pastry just larger than the holes in the tin. Re-roll the pastry and now cut out the same number of slightly smaller lids. Line the tins and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 min.
4 Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Fill the pastry cases with mincemeat and top with the lids, gently pressing them to seal. Brush the tops with a little milk or beaten egg to glaze and bake for 20 min or until golden brown. Leave to cool in their tins for 15 min before turning out on a wire rack.
