Sunday 2 December 2012

Nans MINCE PIES - The ONLY ones worth making! It's that time of the year again...


I LOVE my Nans mincepies so much, Christmas isn't Christmas without them.


That's Grandad NOT Nan!!


An arty shot of Nan as she starts my lesson in mince pie making (I get a box to take home EVERY year and aim to not share them) Nan's been making these for 'donkey's years' as long as I can remember. :-)


To make 36ish Mince pies
440g plain flour
1 x dessert spoon of icing sugar
Mix the above ingredients well (so Nan says)

Then add half the weight of the flour- 8oz/220g in a mixture of lard and hard cold cubes of margarine 
-Nan says keep the butter as cold as possible- She washes her hands in cold water so they don't melt the butter and stops the pastry going lumpy.


Nan says crumble together the butter & lard together into the flour- bring it up high over the bowl to get the air into it.


If it goes sticky then you've crumbled too far.


Add 1x whisked Egg and 2x tbsp of Water and mix with a knife until it all comes together in a ball, then kneed.
Add a tiny bit of water if the crumbs don't go so it all binds.


Nans fancy tin draw


Fruit slices to snack on.


Put the pastry in the fridge for it at least 30mins the roll out so its a couple of millimetres thick, make sure you roll it out evenly. then cut with a pastry cutter, re roll any leftovers and cut out what you can.

Butter your yorshire dishes/trays first


1 x teaspoon of fruit mince meat per pie- No more otherwise it will just spill out


Add the smaller lids and pat them down.


DON'T FORGET to prick each mince pie with a folk right the way through to the bottom of the pastry

Whisk an egg and cover all lids of the mince pies

Cook on 180 on the top shelf of the oven for 20/25mins


Remove the mince pies while they're still hot so they don't stick to the tin if there's been any spillages 
Sprinkle with caster sugar 


Nan with the batch :-)


Me Nan & Grandad


Love them <3

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