“That’s NOT Father Christmas! It’s GRANDAD!”
…said my diminutive self in around 1979. Probably the last time my grandparents persisted with dressing my grandfather up as Santa. The familiar red and white costume hanging around the house, amongst those my grandmother supplied to the local amateur dramatics society during the year, had exposed the myth. That my grandad might be the real Father Christmas was a push too far for my imagination, even if he had a white moustache and it was a plausible excuse for dinner always being served after 4pm – with no lunch! We were on the verge of eating the furniture most years!
My grandmother always made dozens of mince pies at Christmas. She used to mix her pastry with orange juice instead of water. Today I bring you the second of three mincemeat recipes featured this month but the only one which could be called a mince pie.
The most common complaint I hear about mince pies is that they are too heavy with all the pastry so I had the idea to do mini mince pies but with a crumble top instead of the pastry lid. They are much lighter.
To my husband’s horror, I seem to have inherited the magazine hoarding gene. Above you can see just part of my collection of Sainsbury’s, Waitrose Food Illustrated and Delicious Christmas issues together with a couple of Delia Smith Christmas Specials. My favourite cover is the Waitrose one with Nigella Lawson in her party frock.
Almond Crumble Mince Pies - Bitesize
Equipment
- mini muffin trays I used Lakeland Mini Morsel tin which has smaller holes but slightly deeper - but a standard mini muffin tin would do
Ingredients
For The Pastry
- 50 g butter
- 50 g vegetable fat
- 200 g plain flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch salt
- 2-3 tbsp water to mix - or use orange juice like my grandma did!
For The Filling and Topping
- 200 g mincemeat shop-bought is fine
- 40 g ground almonds
- 60 g caster sugar
- 50 g butter
Instructions
- Set oven to gas mark 5 / 190c.
For The Pastry
- Make your shortcrust pastry in the usual way, though mix the salt and cinnamon with the flour first. Rub the fats into the flour, salt and cinnamon until have you have a breadcrumb texture. Add tablespoons of water and stir in to bring the dough together. Knead gently then flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Mix the ground almonds and caster sugar in a medium sized bowl. Rub in the remaining 50g of butter until you have a breadcrumb crumble mixture. Set aside.
- There's no need to roll out the pastry, fashion little baskets of pastry by flattening little discs with your fingers and pushing into the holes in the tin.
- Spoon mincemeat into the pastry cases so they are two thirds full.
- Sprinkle over your almond crumble. Be generous.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the bases are cooked.
- Allow the pies to cool in tray then transfer to wire cooling rack. Naturally they are best eaten when still warm!
Have not made any mince pies yet this year and I badly need to remedy that. The almond crumble idea is superb – I might just have to borrow… 🙂
Almond crumble on mince pies? Fantastic idea especially for almond fans…I'm longing for a bit of orange and lemon zest in that mix.
those are gorgeous .. !!!