Easy Peasy Mince Pies

I don't have a lot of time these days for baking and blogging, but these mince pies are all about the short cuts and are a doddle to make, so easy I just had to share the recipe. I'm a self proclaimed lover of store bought pastry, it makes everything so quick and easy.

 These pies are made using store bought pastry, but good quality pastry. The mince pie filling is also straight from a jar, but I'm using a luxury brand. Basically I'm all about the shortcuts once the very best store bought items are used. There then is nothing stopping you pimping up store bought ingredients. For example here I jazz up the mince filling with some clementine zest and chopped apple.

So on first glance of the pies you think 'oh I don't have the time to make those'; but read on and see how easy it is to make your own.

Makes 9 mince pies

Ingredients

• 1 ready rolled premium quality shortcrust pastry
• 1 jar of luxury mincemeat
• 1/2 an apple, diced
• Zest of 1 clementine 
• 1 tbsp of milk
• Butter, for greasing muffin tray
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and grease a muffin tin with butter
2. Empty the mincemeat into a bowl and add the zest and the chopped apple and stir to combine.
3. Roll out the pastry and using a round pastry cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. 
4. With the scraps, re-roll and cut out some star shapes for the top of the pies.
5. Place the pastry circles in the muffin holes and add the mincemeat filling. Do not be tempted to overfill them as they will burst and overflow when baked.
6. Top each pie with the cut out pastry stars. Brush the stars with a little milk.
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until they are bubbling and golden brown.
8. Cool in the tin on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing from the rack and allowing to cool completely.
9. Dust liberally with icing sugar and hey presto.

If you are visiting over the festive season, these are the prefect gift to bring your friends and family. Everyone loves homemade gift, especially ones that look like you were slaving in the kitchen for hours making. They need never know how easy and quick they were.

In a make ahead tip, you can freeze the pies in the muffin tray unbaked (covered with cling). Then just defrost overnight in the fridge before baking them.