Welcome to December! The month that’s all about shopping, tree decorating, parties, writing endless cards, cracking open the sherry and all manner of other festive treats (and one or two not so treats….) But, one thing we love about December is sinking our teeth into that first delicious mince pie of the year…. well, we hope it’s delicious because there’s nothing worse than a soggy, tasteless mince pie.

There’s nothing better than a delicious mince pie, bringing back lovely festive memories and the warm, sweet taste of Christmas. The humble mince pie dates as far back as the 13th century, and it was brought over to Britain by European crusaders who’d visited the Holy Land. There they had discovered that fruit and spices were added to meat, and so in typical British fashion, we Anglicised it by wrapping it up in two pieces of pastry!

Early names for the mince pie include “minched pies”, mutton pies and Christmas pies. They were much larger in size than they are today, and usually baked in an oblong, rather than round, shape. During the English Civil War in the mid 17th century, they were banned because of their connection to Catholicism.

Thank goodness that they aren’t banned today, because we love ’em! And why not have a go at making some yourself with our easy-peasy festive mince pie recipe? Give us a shout when they’re coming out of the oven and save one for us!!

Mince Pie recipe

• Make the pastry by rubbing 225g of cold butter (diced up) into 350g of plain flour. Once it’s rubbed into a breadcrumb type texture, add 100g of golden caster sugar and a pinch of salt, then press the pastry dough into a ball (it’ll be quite firm). Wrap it in clingfilm and pop it in the fridge for half an hour.
• Meanwhile, grab two 12 hole baking tins (shallow holed ones are best) and preheat the oven 20 200 degrees (or gas mark 6). Get the pastry from the fridge and pull off walnut sized balls of it. Line each hole by pressing the balls of pastry into it and work it up around the sides.
• Spoon some mincemeat into each one – be generous!
• Now, for the lids – pull of slightly smaller pieces of pastry than for the bottoms. Shape into a ball then press it down between your palms, making a lid big enough to fit the pies. Top the pies and squeeze the edges closed.
• Brush the top of all the pies with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until they are golden and piping hot. After 5 minutes of cooling in the tins, take them out and let them completely cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.
• Eat.

These mince pies will keep for 3-4 days in a sealed container – that’s if you haven’t eaten them all by then, and who could blame you because our mince pie recipe is tasty!!

Happy baking……