...but what do you leave out for Rudolph? (Party Food - Tips and Ideas)

Member Name: helencb

Product:	Party Food - Tips and Ideas
Date:	11/12/01 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: home made taste

Disadvantages: Probably costs more than shop bought

Here is my attempt at Mince Pies, which I thought I would share with you. I havent made them for years, but they did go down a treat last Friday night.

You will need:

(This recipe should make approx 30 mince pies)

One baking sheet, for mince pies
Pastry cutter 2.5” in diameter
Pastry cutter 2.0” in diameter.
Pastry Brush
Rolling Pin

To Make Mince Pies
1lb Plain Flour
4-oz butter chilled
4-oz lard chilled
2 oz caster sugar
Drop of milk for binding and browning pastry
Large Jar mincemeat
A little flour for dusting your rolling pin, work-surface, clothes etc

1. Sieve flour into a large mixing bowl. If you sieve with a bit of ‘height’ this will allow more air to enter the flour and help the lightness of the pastry (So Delia tells me, in her 'How to make Pastry' section)
2. Coat the butter and lard blocks in the flour, and then chop into small cubes.
3. Rub Fat into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (Very therapeutic this part, or at the very least it will remind you of Home Economics Lessons when you were at school.)
4. Add the sugar to the mix, and stir in gently.
5. Add the smallest drop of water, and bind the mixture together with your hands. Better to add too little, you can always add more.
6. The mixture should come together very quickly and leave the bowl clean.
7. Place the Pastry ball on a plate and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so.
8. Lightly grease the baking sheet, to prevent the pastry sticking.
9. Lightly dust your clean, dry work-surface with flour
10. Roll out the dough ball using the rolling pin, and rotating the rolled out pastry through 90 degrees, after each ‘roll’. You will probably find it easier to split the dough into two or three.
11. Continue to roll the pastry, until it is just a few mm thick. Using the larger pastry cutter, cut out your circle base
s and place these on the baking sheet
12. Fill each base with a spoonful of mincemeat, careful not to overfill, as the contents will spill over
13. Lightly milk the edges of the pastry circles, to allow you to stick the pastry tops to them
14. Re-roll your pastry, utilising all the scraps, and cut out the pastry tops using the smaller cutter
15. Place these on top of the bases and mincemeat, and lightly pinch the pastry edges together with your fingers.
16. Brush the tops with milk and place in the over on Gas Mark 5, 180 degrees C for 18-20 minutes.


Can be served warm or cold, but they are best served warm with a splash of brandy cream! If served cold, lightly dust the tops by shaking Icing sugar over them.

Make sure you leave one out for Santa, and don’t forget to leave a snack for Rudolph!

PS Apologies for imperial measurements, have done a conversion course yet (LOL)

Summary: