“Marge, it’s 3 AM. Shouldn’t you be baking?”
Homer Simpson
Christmas Fruit Mince Pies
Ingredients
1 portion Pâte Sucrée {recipe follows}
1/2 to 3/4 cup fruit mincemeat {recipe follows}
- 1/2 egg white {or yolk for egg wash}
- Vanilla sugar for sprinkling
Pâte Sucrée / Sweet Pastry
- 200gm all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- pinch of salt
- 100gm chilled butter, cubed
- 1 egg, lightly whisked with fork
- 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2tbsp chilled water {to bind if required}
Mincemeat or fruit mix, sans suet {you will need about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of this}
- 700gms raisins, chopped if desired
- 200 currants
- 100gms orange peel, chopped
- 170gms almonds, chopped
- 250gms cashewnuts, chopped
- 100gms candied cherries, chopped
- 1/4 cup Cherry liquor/brandy
- 1/2 cup rum {or brandy}
- 3/4 cup fresh orange juice {from 3 keenus/oranges}
- Juice of 3-4 limes
- Zest of 2 keenus/oranges
- 4 tbsp garam masala
Instructions
Pâte Sucrée / Sweet Pastry
- Place the flour, salt, scraped vanilla beans and sugar in bowl of processor and blend briefly. {Thermomix: Speed 6, 5 seconds}
- Add chilled butter and process until you get a breadcrumb like mix. {Thermomix: Speed 8, 6-7 seconds}
- With the machine running, add the egg and process till it the dough begins to come together. {Thermomix: Speed 8, 7-8 seconds}
- If you pinch the dough with your fingertips it should stick together. If not add a tbsp of chilled water and process.
- Turn dough onto work surface and pat together into a firm ball. Do not knead / overprocess. Let it rest 10-20 minutes {I left it on the counter as its very cold here. If the temperature is warm, rest the dough in the fridge}.
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- On a very lightly floured surface, take a quarter of the dough and roll it out thin. Cut out 12 circles with a fluted cookie cutter and place in tart tray. Repeat with next portion of dough.
- Fill each base with a heaped tsp of mincemeat.
- Now cut out 24 'toppers' from the remaining dough {or a combination of fluted cut-out tops, stars, snowflakes etc} and place over fruit, pressing down slightly.
- Brush the tops with a beaten egg white {or egg yolk}, sprinkle with vanilla sugar and bake for 15-18 minutes until light golden brown.
- Leave in tray for 1-2 minutes, remove to rack and cool.
Mincemeat / fruitmince or fruit mix, sans suet
- Mix all the ingredients nicely and soak overnight in a cool place, or for 3-4 days. The longer you soak the fruit, the more mature the flavour. I soaked mine for 3 days. {You can substitute the alcohol with an equal amount of orange juice too}
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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India