Alex O'Brien

Fruit mince pies

Christmas wouldn’t be complete with out some fruit mince pies. Luckily Anne Taylor shares this fab recipe that has gorgeous star tops for the pies. Very festive indeed.

Makes: 20

Preparation time: One hour

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 750 g seeded raisins
• 125g mixed peel
• 1kg cooking apples
• 375g currants
• 250g sultanas
• 185g shredded suet
• ½ teaspoon mixed spice
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons rum, brandy or sherry

Pastry

• 4 cups of self raising flour
• 250g butter
• 1 egg separated
• ¾ cup of milk 

Method:

1. Finely chop or mince the raisins and peel. Peel core apples and chop or mince the apples (do this in my kitchen wiz). 
2. Place raisins and apples in a large bowl with the other fruit, suet and spice (I melt suet in the microwave and pour over the mixture). Add lemon juice, rind, sugar and brandy.
3. Mix thoroughly and leave to stand overnight.
4. To make pastry, mix butter and flour in a kitchen wiz. While still turning put in half a cup of milk and egg yolk. If this amount is not enough I put in another quarter of a cup of milk. 
5. Turn pastry mix onto a clean work surface. Shape into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rest.
6. Preheat oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick. Use an 8.5cm-diameter round pastry cutter to cut 20 discs from the pastry. Use a 5cm-diameter star-shaped pastry cutter to cut 20 stars from the remaining pastry. The egg white can be used as a glaze for the top of the pies. 
7. Line a 20-capacity muffin pans with pastry discs. Divide the fruit mince among the pastry cases. Top with pastry stars. Brush the stars lightly with the egg and sprinkle with white sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden. Set aside in the pans for five minutes to cool before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTE: You can put fruit filling into sealed containers in the fridge for a couple of months or even freeze if you wish.

To read more of Anne’s recipes you can visit her blog here or her Facebook page here.

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