Donna Hay Fruit Mince Pies

Fruit mince pies are one of my favourite foods! I always look forward to Christmas and getting to eat fruit mince pies. I bought some pies from my local bakery recently, and was disappointed, as they were more pastry and not enough fruit mince! (Take note, this it my personal preference, as I love fruit cake and fruit mince. I know that others will prefer there to be more pastry!)

I thought that I would give it a go to make some fruit mince pies, and I have a few recipes in my collection of books. The recipe I used was from Donna Hay Simple Essentials: Christmas. I essentially followed it, modifications explained below.

First of all I made the fruit mince:
1 large apple, peeled, core cut out and grated
1/3 cup sultanas
1/4 cup raisins (the recipe called for candied peel. Yuck.)
1/3 cup currants
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
30g butter, melted
2 tablespoons sherry

Mix well, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

I have to confess that I am not very good at following instructions to the letter. So, I omitted the candied peel and substituted raisins. I am pretty sure that I put more butter and sherry in that was recommended. As well, I made the fruit mince on Saturday and it is only tonight, Monday, that I have actually made some of the pies.




So, to the pastry. The recipe calls for 700g of store bought shortcrust pastry, or use the recipe included in the book. The shortcrust pastry recipe makes 350g, and the quantities to me seemed more than sufficient for making 22 pies. In this instance I made only one quantity of pastry.

Process 2 cups plain flour with 145g butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the motor running, add enough iced water to form a dough. Knead lightly then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

I was a little sketchy about the amount of water needed, and my (borrowed from Mum!) food processor is a little gutless so I was worried that I might burn it out! I ended up not waiting until the dough balled, and instead turned it onto a floured chopping board to bring it together.



One thing that I like to do when working with pastry is to use a glove (or gloves). These disposable gloves protect the hands but also help to keep the heat off the pastry. Magic!

The pastry is then to be rolled to 2mm thick. I used a 78mm biscuit cutter to cut rounds that I then put into a patty tray. When I had filled them up I placed the tray into the freezer to help rest the pastry while I made the stars! While I was working with the pastry it seemed quite elastic, and it was really difficult to roll. I don't know if this is because I have overworked the pastry or if it is because I did not put enough water in. I shall have to see how the pies turn out.

Once I had made the stars, I pulled the pastry out of the freezer and put the filling into the pastry cases. The stars went on top, and were brushed with beaten egg and sprinkled with caster sugar.



I cooked them for 14 minutes at 170C in a fan forced oven - I usually drop the temperature around 10C from a recipe for the fan force.

I have pulled them out of the oven, and sampled. The pastry was nice and light and a little crisp, so very nice. Quite different from the heavier pastries of the bought pies, that was maybe because my pastry was rolled so thinly.

I used half of the pastry that I made to make 12 pies, with leftovers in the bin. So I do not know what you would do with the 700g of the original recipe. Perhaps my idea of 2mm is different from what was intended.

I am hoping that they will still be crisp in the morning, and that the fruit mince will not make the pastry soggy!!