Christmas Fruit Mince Pies

The dessert no Christmas table should be without - Christmas fruit mince pies! Made with homemade Christmas fruit mince and sweet shortcrust pastry.

Oh my god guys, it's 13 sleeps until Christmas! Ahhhh! I mean, it's not like I wasn't expecting it to be Christmas soon, but I am so disorganised this year! I have bought 1 present, have only just finished decorating and it just doesn't quite feel like Christmas is in 2 weeks. Maybe because I've been laid up with a terrible cold this week....it's summer! What's the deal??

At least I have the food sorted. We've made a menu and split it between the whole family which makes it nice and easy. And of course the first thing on my list is Christmas fruit mince pies aka my FAVOURITE, it wouldn't be Christmas without them, treat.

This recipe is a follow on from homemade Christmas fruit mince that I shared last week - like I said, even if you run out of time to make the pastry for the pies and need to use store-bought (no judgement, it's a busy time of year!) you need to make the fruit mince at home. It's so easy! And come to think of it, so is the pastry that holds these little mini gems. In fact, I can make this pastry in less time than it takes for bought pastry to defrost. True story.

I'm usually a little more particular with my pastry but in this case we're not really after the layers of flakiness as much as we are the taste. I make this sweet shortcrust pastry in the food processor which takes almost no time - perfect for this time of year!

You can either follow the recipe as below, using my homemade Christmas fruit mince and this pastry, or make them with flaky puff pastry - they are both so good I have a hard time deciding which one is my favourite! My Grandma always makes them with shortcrust pastry, my Granny makes them with puff pastry. How can I choose?!

Optional but super cute - making snowflake cutouts to sit on top of the mini pies.

Bake them until golden brown, dust with icing sugar and serve warm

The perfect Christmas treat!

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Christmas Fruit Mince Pies

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 20 mini pies

Author: Laura

Ingredients

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• ▢ 180 g butter cubed
• ▢ 1 ¾ cup flour
• ▢ ¼ cup sugar
• ▢ Pinch of salt
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 2-3 tablespoon cold water
• ▢ Filling
• ▢ 1 cup Christmas fruit mince

Instructions

• Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a medium sized bowl or in the bowl of a food processor. Using either a pastry blender or the food processor, cut in the butter until only a few pea sized pieces remain.
• Add the egg and pulse in the food processor until combined, or use a spoon.
• Slowly add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough just starts to come together in a ball. Take the dough out of the bowl and using your hands on a lightly floured surface, form it into a smooth ball. Flatten the dough into 2 discs, wrap in gladwrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until needed. At this point you may want to freeze 1 of the discs - place in a snaplock bag and freeze.
• Once the dough has chilled, roll out to a thickness of about 4-5mm. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out circles the size of the tins you will be using and place in the tins. I like to use mini muffin tins, but regular muffin tins would work too.
• Fill each pastry case with a generous spoonful of Christmas fruit mince. You can leave them as is, or make pastry cut-outs to sit on top.
• Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
• Allow to cool for a few minutes in the tins before transferring to a cooling rack.
• Dust with icing sugar before serving.
• Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 week.
• Pies are delicious when warmed slightly.

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