By Gillian Thompson 16 Comments
Frangipane Mince Pies
It’s at this time of the year that I hear the call of the beloved mince pie. Not just any mince pie, but Frangipane Mince Pies, from one of my favourite baking books, Nigella Lawson’s, How to be a Domestic Goddess.
What is a mince pie?
Unless you are from an english speaking country, no doubt, some of you may even wonder what is a mince pie. And you are probably wonderingwhy on earth youwould youmix minced meat with fruit and sugar then wrap in pastry?
Mince pies are a traditional British sweet eaten around Christmas time. Said to have been brought over by the Europeancrusaders from the Holy Land. Indeed, they arereminiscent of Middle Eastern cooking, where meat is often combined with fruits, nuts and spices. Therefore, the very first mince pies actually did contain meat. However, palates changed over the years and the current day mince pie no longer contains meat andis purely dried fruits (currants, sultanas, apple, mixed peel), shredded suet or vegetable shortening, sugar and brandy. The mince meat is usually prepared months ahead, preserved by plentiful sugar and alcohol!
Frangipane Mince Pies
There are many fabulous mince pie recipes out there and most are pretty basic, after all they are just pastry (sweet or savoury) and mince meatfilling. No doubt you’ll have your favourites already. I’ve been making these particular frangipane mince pies for the past ten years, which havebecome a firm favourite amongst family and friends alike. As a result, no Christmas is quite complete without these buttery, mounds of deliciousness.
Other than their fabulous taste, one of the best things about these frangipane mince pies is you can make themwell in advance of Christmas. Either make the pastry ahead of time and freeze in discs, or make the complete mince pie with filling and all and freeze between layers of greaseproof paper. They will easily freeze for 2-3 months. One Christmas I made about 50 mince pies and were still eating mince pies at Easter time!
Does size matter?
Nigella’s recipe states she makes 24 regular sized mince pies out of these quantities, using a 7cm cookie cutter. A point to note though, if you do use a 7cm cutter you will have a very shallow mince pie. Therefore, if you prefer a deeper mince pie, like I do, I recommend you use a 9cm cookie cutter rather than the 7cm cookie cutter. You will find that the quantity of frangipane in this recipe yields enough to make 12-18 lovely, deep filled, pies,or one tray of regular and one tray of minis.I made 12 regular sized (9cm cookie cutter) and onetray of 12 mini (7cm cookie cutter) mince pies.
If you love mince pies then I’m sure you’ll love these. Even though, they may take a little longer than a regular mince pie they arewell worth the extra 10 minutes it takes making the frangipane.
What is your favourite Christmas food treat?
If you have any questions or comments just drop me a line or write in the comments box below.
Also, If you make the recipe and like it you can give it a rating, take a photo and share it with me over onINSTAGRAMby tagging it #gillianskitchen.
gx
4.34 from 3 votes
Frangipane Mince Pies
Prep Time
1 hr 20 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
1 hr 5 mins
No Christmas is complete without these gorgeous little morsels of almondy, buttery delight. You could describe them as mini bakewell tarts with a Christmas twist.
Course:Biscuits & Bakes
Cuisine:British
Servings: 18
Author: Gillian Thompson
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- 175gplain flourpreferably 00
- 30gground almonds
- 65gicing sugar
- pinch of salt
- 125gcold unsalted butterdiced
- 2large egg yolksbeaten with 1 tbsp of iced water
For the topping:
- 200gmincemeat
- 1tbspbrandyoptional
- 90gcaster sugar
- 90gunsalted buttermelted
- 2large eggs
- 90gground almonds
- 4tbspflaked almonds
Instructions
For the Pastry
Put the flour, ground almonds, sugar and salt into the food processor bowl and pulse to combine.
Add the chilled diced butter and process until you have a mixture the texture of breadcrumbs.
Start to add, one tablespoon at a time, the egg and water mix down the funnel. Pulse as you add, until the pastry looks like it's about to form a ball around the blade.
Turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and bring together with your hands to form a dough.
Shape the dough into 2 discs, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Roll out one of the disc and stamp out 6 circles. The circles need to be slightly larger than the tart indentations. Press the pastry down gently. Roll out your next disc of dough and repeat. Place the tray back into the fridge for a further 15 minutes to rest.
Preheat the oven to 200C / gas mark 6.
The filling:
Melt your butter.
In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar then pour in the melted butter, whilst still beating. Then stir in the ground almonds.
Mix the brandy into the mincemeat.
Remove the tray from the fridge and place 3/4 teaspoon of the brandy mince meat into each pastry cavity.
Add a tablespoon of the frangipane mix over each mince meat filled pastry.
Sprinkle each pie with some flaked almonds and bake for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and the tops are golden brown.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
Nigella's recipe states she makes 24 regular sized mince pies out of these quantities, using a 7cm biscuit cutter. However, a 7cm cutter is ideal for the mini sized tarts (using a mini muffin tin) and are very cute indeed, but if you prefer more than a mouthful the I recommend you use the regular sized muffin trays and a 9cm cookie cutter.
)