12 Days Of Blogmas!! Day 2: Homemade Mince Pies

On the second day of Christmas, my blog page gave to me, a secret recipe on how to make the best mince pies that would even put Mary Berry's to shame!

In my house, my sister is the baker. She bakes anything from bread to some amazing chocolate orange brownies. Although I work as a part time baker in my local Co-Op, everything comes in frozen so I just shove it in the oven, such a disappointment, I know :(! So I thought I would try some actual baking and make my first ever batch of mice pies and try my first ever mince pie. 

In my head, I had the idea of buying pastry, mince meat and then chuck them in the oven and boom, got yourself a festive treat. But no, Kate made me make the pastry by hand which was so messy and over the top but made it feel more special. For the pastry, you require:

250g of Plain Flour

50g of Lard

50g of Butter

Then mix all those bad boys in a big bowl whilst adding a dash of water here and there to get it to stick together and then you have some naughty pastry.

Next, you want to roll the pastry out in to a sheet and cut circles out to make the base of the pie. BUT, make sure you save some pastry so you can put something on top such as a start or Christmas tree to make it more festive. 

Once you've cut all the bases out, fill the bases with mince meat, but don't make the same mistake as I did. Only fill it up half way otherwise it'll got everywhere and make a mess!! 

Then place your extra pastry cut outs on top on the pie and finish off by mixing one egg and then glazing the pies to give them that golden colour when they come out the oven!

Put them into the oven until they look golden and crispy and leave to rest. 

Finally, dust them with some icing sugar to make them look like a 10/10 mince pie and you have yourself a festive treat for the whole family to share!

Here's some I made on my second attempt. 

Let me know if you've baked anything over the festive period and how it went!! See you again in a couple of days!!

TheHarviePost