Judging from the comments on my Christmas Cake posts (I and II), not everyone enjoys dried fruit! So maybe fruit mince pies don’t hold a universal following.

For those who are fans, here’s my recipe for these little pies. I keep them in the freezer and just defrost them when we want to have them with a cup of tea. If you do have the time to make them from scratch, they make beautiful gifts. Last year I gave someone a dozen; he later told me he ran a blind tasting with his family, pitting home made pies against shop bought – home made won hands down.

You can ‘lid’ these pies any way you want to. I like little stars (I’ve also tried other shapes like hearts; nothing seems to work quite as well as stars), others like to do lattice tops, or others still like a full round lid, maybe with a glacé cherry on top. Let yourself be consumed by this ancient question and choose a favourite.

I used to make these mince pies with my mum when I was a teenager. This is our family fruit mince recipe. It doesn’t use suet, so you don’t have to cook it – just whiz it in the food processor and you’re done. We’ve always used the Neenish Tart pastry recipe from the Edmonds book. It suits fruit mince really well; it’s nice and sweet – but doesn’t crumble when you bite into it, spilling fruit mince all down your front. Handy.

If you can be bothered, doubling the pastry recipe is a great idea. I doubled it, and made as many fruit mince pies as I had mince to fill, then just baked the other cases empty. You can freeze the cases, and use them later for lemon tarts (fill with lemon curd, top with a fresh raspberry), caramel tarts (fill with caramel, ice with chocolate icing), or last year I made Neenish Tarts (following the Edmonds recipe). If you’ve got the cases in your freezer you can assemble a batch of filled tarts in 10 minutes. Handy.

Fruit Mince

I can’t recall how much this recipe makes; I think 2-3 cups. Certainly enough for 2-3 dozen mince pies.

1 lemon, rind and juice
1 orange, rind
1 cup brown sugar
2 apples, cored and cut into large pieces (leave unpeeled)
2 cups sultanas
2 cups mixed fruit (use chopped dried fruit of your choice, or cake fruit mix)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp finely grated nutmeg (fresh is best, if you have it)
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
¼ cup rum, brandy or whiskey – or use orange juice if you prefer

Place the orange and lemon rind in the processor with the brown sugar, and whiz until finely chopped and mixed. Add the apple, lemon juice, and half of the sultanas and mixed fruit. Whiz until the apple is finely chopped, then add the remaining sultanas and fruit, spices, salt and rum/brandy/whiskey/orange juice, and whiz again, just until everything is combined.

You can use this straight away for mince pies (see below), or refrigerate or freeze for later use. There are other uses for Christmas fruit mince – you can bake filo pastry parcels filled with fruit mince for dessert, there are a few recipes for Christmas fruit mince muffins, or you could make festive cinnamon buns or a wreath of bread with fruit mince spread through the dough.

Pastry Cases
from the Edmonds Cookery Book‘s Neenish Tarts recipe

I doubled this recipe, and had enough for 4 dozen standard sized tart cases (half of those filled and topped with stars, half empty, lid-less and destined for the freezer), plus a dozen mini fruit mince pies (also topped with stars). The mini size is nice, and a shade more elegant for guests.

125g butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (I run the cake mixer for about 5 minutes). Add egg and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt, and mix into the butter mixture, stirring well. Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured board and knead well. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°. Lightly grease a muffin tin – standard or mini size. Roll the pastry out to 2-3mm thick. Cut out rounds with the appropriate sized cutter, and gently line the muffin holes with pastry rounds. Prick the bases once or twice with a fork.  If you’re baking empty shells for future life as a Neenish tart, pop them in the oven for about 12 minutes, until cooked and light golden.

If you’re making fruit mince pies, fill the uncooked, pricked bases with fruit mince. Cut out small stars from the pastry and use them to top the mince pies – or cut out rounds to make lids, or strips to make lattice tops; whatever floats your boat. Filled mince pies will take 20-25 minutes to bake, also at 180°.

UPDATE: This is also my entry for December’s Sweet NZ, hosted this month by Bron Marshall. The event was started up by Alessandra Zecchini (details available here).