Fruit Mince Pies

Oh my gosh there are only 21 days till Christmas, already I'm feeling like there isn't enough time. I did manage to put my tree up over the weekend though and made fruit mince pies, so really I'm not doing too bad. I guess I'm going for a woodlandy kind of vibe this year, inspired by my funny looking wooden squirrels.

As promised, fruit mince pies (only a couple of days late.) I have had fruit mince hanging out in my fridge for the last week, waiting while its flavours mix and develop and now here's the pie part to match.

The pastry was a bit frustrating to use, its get soft very quickly and while making the pies I considered starting again. I persevered with the pastry and am so glad I did, it baked beautifully, turning out buttery, crisp and crumbly.  I found keeping the pastry cool, not easy as it was a super hot day, and dusting with a lot of flour when rolling and cutting made it easier to work with.

All up I think these are my best fruit mince pies yet, not only is the pastry yummy I also love the fruit filling. The addition of the dried cranberries makes them that bit different and are a nice change from the usual excess of raisins and currents. These pie are sweet and spicy with that little extra kick from the rum, everything you want at this time of year.

 For the fruit mince filling -See this post for the instructions.

(preferably make the fruit filling a week ahead or at least the day before) 

2 1/2 cups mix fruit (mine had sultanas, raisins, currents and mixed peel)

1/4 cup dried apricots

1 cup dried cranberries (craisins)

1/2 cup red glace cherries

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 cup orange marmalade

4 tablespoons spiced rum

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

 For the pastry (double, if you want to use all the fruit filling)

2 cups plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

185 grams butter, cubed

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 egg yolks

1-2 tablespoons cold water (if needed)

1 egg white, lightly beaten

To make the pastry- add the flour, baking powder and butter to a food processor  process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add sugar and egg yolks, process until combined. If the mixture is still crumbly, add a little water to form a dough. 

Knead the dough until smooth and divide into two disks, wrap the pastry in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c. and grease a cupcake pan with non stick spray. If you like, line each cupcake pan with a strip of backing paper to help with removing the pies.

Re-kneed the chilled dough and dust with flour, roll the dough between 2 sheets of non stick paper to about 1/2 cm thick. 

Using a large round cutter or glass cut out the pastry circles, re-roll the left over pastry and cut out an equal number of stars. 

Gently press one circle of pastry into each cupcake pan hole. Fill each pastry base with a heaped teaspoon of fruit filling and top with a pastry star.

Brush the exposed pastry with a little egg white and bake pies for around 15 minutes or until they're lightly golden. Remove from the pan once the pies are cool.

The smell in the kitchen while these are baking is awesome, enjoy the scent and enjoy the pies.

Mini Lemon Meringue Tarts

Lemon Meringue Pie is one of boyfriends favorite sweets, these were a special request from him. I think he was expecting a big pie all to himself so was probably a bit disappointed at the miniature size of these little tarts, but they were yummy all the same. Personally I loved the smaller size of these mini lemon meringue tarts, I really enjoyed the higher crust to filling ratio and to be honest am a sucker for anything in miniature.

Pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup caster sugar

125 grams cold butter (roughly chopped)

1 egg yolk

Lemon Filling

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoon lemon zest (finely grated)

75 grams butter (roughly chopped)

2 egg yolks

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

To make the pastry- add the flour, sugar, butter and egg yolk in the bowl of a food pocessor, process until all the ingredients are combine and the dough comes together slightly.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly flowered surface and give it a bit of a knead until sooth. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and place in the fridge for half and hour before using.

To make the tarts- lightly grease a 12 hole cupcake/muffin pan with butter and preheat oven to 200 degrees c. Roll out the chilled pastry dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick .

Cut out 12 8cm circles from the dough, re-rolling as needed. Press the pastry rounds into the cupcake pan and prick the base and sides with a fork.

Place the tart bases in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans. While the bases are cooling make the filling.

To make the Filling- add the sugar and cornflour to a small saucepan, stir in the lemon juice and the water.

Continue stirring over a medium heat until the mixture boils and gets thicker, turn the heat down to low and continue stiring the simmering mixture for a minute. Take the pan off the heat and quickly stir in the egg yolks, butter and lemon zest. Set the lemon filling aside for 10 minutes to cool.

Spoon the lemon filling evenly between the cooled pastry cases then place in the fridge to set for about one hour.

To make the Meringue- preheat the oven to 240 degrees c. With an electric mixer beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the in the sugar, continue beating until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture forms firm peaks. Spoon the meringue gently into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.

Roughen the surface of the filling on each tart with a fork, pipe a swirl of meringue onto the top of each tart. Bake the tarts for about 3 minutes, until the meringue is lightly golden.

Enjoy them, they're delicious!!