Ultimate Mince Pies

The Ultimate Mince Pies- mince pies in shortcrust pastry, topped with frangipane and lemon icing. The ultimate Christmas treat.



Most people fall into one of two categories when it comes to mince pies. You're either beside yourself with excitement when you see the first packet in the shops and you have to buy some straight away, or you can easily wait until Christmas day and you wouldn't be that bothered if you didn't end up having one that year. If you're in the first camp, then it's that special time of year- Mince pies are everywhere you look!

There seem to be a dizzying array of options on the mince pie front these days: standard mince pies, puff pastry mince pies, luxury mince pies, iced mince pies, mini mince pies and so on.You could probably buy a different type every week from now until Christmas! Shop-bought mince pies are really good, but home-made ones always taste that little bit better. If you want the easy version, try making my Cheat's Mince Pies

This year, I decided to make mince pies with a difference. These 'Ultimate Mince Pies' have a shortcrust pastry base with a mincemeat filling which is topped with frangipane and then iced with a lemon icing. Delicious! I prefer them to a standard mince pie, as I often find the mincemeat filling a bit too rich in those. Using frangipane reduces how much mincemeat you need and adds a cake-like element. I topped them with lemon icing, but if you're not a fan, you could swap the lemon juice for water. If you don't want to make your own pastry, you can use a 500g block of shop-bought shortcrust and it will work beautifully.

I'm sure these 'Ultimate Mince Pies' could win over some of the hardened 'don't care about mince pies' people of the world!


4 mince pies on a plate


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