Fruit Mince & Frangipane Pies
Fruit Mince & Frangipane Pies
(makes 24 bite-sized pies)
December is a funny time of year, isn’t it? The want for festivities and cheer is high, but end-of-year fatigue is also very real. I do find, however, that a spot of Christmas baking usually does the trick – tipping the pendulum firmly in favour of cheerfulness (and maybe overindulgence).
Fruit mince pies are one of the mandatory items on my Christmas bake-list – my mum always makes them in the days leading up to Christmas and it is a tradition I have adopted also. Homemade fruit mince and home made pastry really does make these little pies special, but if you’re pressed for time, good quality store-bought will work too! This recipe is from my book Handfuls of Sunshine, and the pies have a layer of frangipane between the pastry and fruit. With a spoonful of thick cream, they are utterly delicious!
Ingredients
1 x quantity Short Sweet Pastry (recipe here), or use quality store bought
450g Good Fruit Mince (recipe here), or use quality store bought
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash
Raw sugar, to sprinkle
Double cream, to serve (optional)
Frangipane:
60g unsalted butter, softened
55g caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 egg
80g almond meal
1 tablespoon plain flour
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced and get 2 x 12-hole patty pan tins out ready (these are the small shallow, rounded tins for old-fashioned patty cakes). You can do the tarts in two batches if you only have one tin.
First, make the frangipane by placing softened butter, caster sugar, vanilla bean paste, egg, and almond meal into a mixing bowl and beating until light (you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon, just make sure the butter is really soft before you begin). Add flour and stir gently to combine. Set aside.
Next, prepare the pastry for the pies by cutting the rested pastry logs into 5 or 6 pieces. Working with one piece at a time, use the heel of your hand to stretch and smear the pastry out over a clean worksurface, to make the pastry malleable. Bundle all the pastry back into one piece and knead briefly. Shape into a rough rectangle. Place onto a lightly floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll pastry out until it is about 2-3mm thick.
Use a round cutter that is slightly bigger than your patty pan holes (about 7cm) to cut out as many rounds from the rolled pastry as you can. Re-roll pastry and cut out remaining rounds, along with 24 star shapes to place on top of the pies. Place one pastry round into the base of each patty pan hole, gently pressing it into place. If the pastry has warmed up a lot, refrigerate tart shells and stars for 30 minutes before baking.
Fill each pastry shell with a generous teaspoon of frangipane and top with 2 teaspoons of fruit mince. Gently place a star on top of each pie, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with a little raw sugar.
Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the fruit mince is bubbling. Allow pies to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before carefully removing and placing on a wire rack to cool (you want to take the pies out before any sugar or fruit mince spills cool and cement them to the tin!).
Mince pies are best eaten the day they are baked, but will keep quite happily in an airtight container at room temperature for a two or three days (ours never last that long!). Serve with a spoonful of double cream if you are so inclined.
