40 mins
Not Too Tricky
makes 18
About the recipe
This epic mince pie sharer is a brilliant twist on traditional mince pies. Using shop-bought mincemeat and ready-made pastry cuts down the prep time, freeing you up to spend more time on the fun bit.
Ingredients
20g dried fruit, such as cranberries, blueberries or apricots
250g good-quality mincemeat
2 clementines
plain flour, for dusting
½ a 250g block of puff pastry
1 free-range egg
30g nuts, such as almonds or pistachios
icing sugar, for dusting
Top Tip
Once cooled, you can freeze the cooked mince pies in a plastic container. Simply place on a lined baking tray and reheat in a hot oven from frozen.
Switch up the dried fruit and nuts with your favourites – any type will work well.
You can create any shape you like – a wreath, a bell, a star – have fun with it!
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/gas 6. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Roughly chop the dried fruit and place in a large mixing bowl with the mincemeat. Add the zest of the clementines and mix well.
- Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle about 20cm x 40cm and the thickness of a pound coin. Thinly spread the mincemeat over the pastry, then roll up into a tight roll, starting with the longer edge closest to you. Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush the top edge to seal.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the roll into 18 pinwheels about 1cm thick. Now, to make the Christmas tree: Starting at the top, place one pinwheel at the top edge of the baking tray, then place two beneath, then three beneath that, adding another pinwheel to each row, until you have three pinwheels left. Use these final pinwheels to make the trunk.
- Brush the pinwheels with a little beaten egg, then roughly chop the nuts and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Leave to cool, then dust with a little icing sugar before serving.
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