Feliz Natal
My Christmas has started a batch of mincepies have been made…the girls have opened one present each a household tradition harping back to my Portuguese roots and my garage is full of the of food that doesn’t fit into the fridge just as well it’s cold outside.
Mince Pies
The pastry for my mincepies could not be easier to remember and it’s incredibly well tempered too. Pate Brisee shortcrust pastry which can contain an egg like in a Roux brother’s recipe is roughly half butter to the quantity of flour and if the pate brisee is used for sweet dishes it can contain a small amount of sugar from a pinch to a tablespoon. For my pastry I keep to the same ratio of fat to flour but instead of using all butter I mix vegetable fat with the butter, so it’s 50:50 butter and vegetable fat. I find this combination with the mincepies not too rich and makes an almost flaky pastry for a non-flaky pastry. I don’t add sugar at all as I think the mincemeat is sweet enough.
I use a food processor to mix in the fat with the flour because it keeps the pastry from being over handled it means the fat can be really cold, the processor cuts the fat into little specks spreading all over the flour and by the time you add your milk to bind the pastry it’s all still cold and being quick enough not to overwork the flour keeping the pastry light.
I made two large batches of pastry using 600g of flour for each batch and stored one in the fridge to make fresh pies a few days later if you want to keep it longer put it in the freezer. I’ve given a smaller quantity below which should give you 12 mince pies.
400 g plain flour, all purpose flour
100 g butter cold, cut into very small pieces, if using unsalted butter add a pinch of salt
100 g vegetable shortening, very cold cut into very small cubes like Trex
a little milk
1 jar of your choice of mincemeat or follow my recipes for mincemeat
By Hand
Sift the flour into a large bowl add the pieces of the butter and vegetable shortening rub into the flour until you rubbed all the fat well using your fingertips. Once the fat is mixed in the flour it should be look more like small breadcrumbs and then add a little milk tablespoons at a time, the best way to mix this is using a palette knife but not essential.
The mixture should start to clump together and be damp at this point see if you have enough liquid by bringing the dough together and it should stick together but not be very wet. I like to use as little energy as possible at this point to bring the dough together so not to overwork it and once it’s in one big ball I’ll cover it in clingfilm and rest it in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
By Processor
Put the sifted flour into the processor followed by the diced butter and vegetable shortening and using the pulse motion mix everything together into it’s all blended and starts to resemble tiny breadcrumbs. At this point through the funnel of the processor add small amounts of milk until the mixture starts to wants to clump together. Feel the dough and see if it’s damp and feels pliable. Take it out and bring it all together into one ball wrap it in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for at least 30 mins.
Rolling Out the Dough
Dust the surface you’re going to be rolling out the pastry on lightly with some flour. Roll out the pastry and keep turning it a quarter quite often and now and again turn over the pastry and roll it from the other side until it’s thin enough to start cutting it out. Gently moving the pastry will stop it from sticking to the board although you may need to once or twice to shower it with a tiny amount of flour. You want to avoid adding too much flour or you’ll end up drying the dough.
Once you’ve cut the bottoms for the pies cut out the lids and re-rolling the pastry by bringing it all together again and starting the rolling process again. I used a star cutter to make then more festive but any cutter you fancy will do. When choosing a cutter for cutting the bottoms of the pies place the cutter over the tins but make certain the cutter is slightly larger than the holes in your tin in order to be large enough to be pushed into the holes.
I like to cut my dough in half before I start to rolling it out that way I won’t be overhandling it when it comes to re-rolling it.
Fill the pastry cases with a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat top with the pastry lid and bake in the oven at 180C between 20-25 mins.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
i found your website very instesting, especialy your mince pie recipie i am still laughing out loud reading the family page, carn’t wait to read more!