These are decadent little sweet, fruity, spicy, jammy mini-pies made with buttery shortcrust pastry cases and traditionally served in Britain at Christmas time.
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup butter cold
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup sour cream or fresh cream with some lemon juice to sour
- 1 jar fruit mincemeat (I use Safari Mincemeat)
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TO MAKE THE PASTRY:
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Place the flour in a bowl and rub the butter into the flour using your fingers until it looks like fine crumbs.
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Add the salt and sour cream and mix with a metal spoon until the pastry comes together. Form into a ball with your hands, place in a plastic bag and rest in the fridge overnight.
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TO MAKE THE MINCE PIES:
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Preheat oven to 180°C.
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On a clean, floured surface, roll out the pastry nice and thin, and cut out circles for the base and stars for the top.
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Place the base circles into an un-greased mince pie tin (or shallow cupcake tin), spoon in 1 heaped tsp of mincemeat into each pie. Wet the corners of the stars with a little milk and place on top, pressing down lightly in the corners so that they stick to the base pastry. Brush the stars gently with some milk and then use a fork to make 4 little holes in the middle of the stars to let out the steam.
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Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes until they are golden. Then do the second batch.
If you don’t have time to leave the pastry in the fridge overnight, rest it in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. If you don’t have a star pastry cutter, use a slightly smaller circle than the circle cutter you are using for the base. Stick them down in the normal way with a little milk around the edges. Brush gently with milk, and use a fork to make a row of little holes on the top to let the steam out.
