Christmas Mince Pies

Method

1. To make the pastry sieve the flour and salt. Rub in the cubes of butter, do not over mix. You want it to look like large breadcrumbs.

2. Dissolve the sugar in the eggs, mix it lightly and add this to the flour mixture with a fork until combined, then bring it all together with your hands.

3. Wrap the pastry in baking parchment and rest it for at least three hours or overnight if you wish.

4. To make the mince pies preheat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Butter and flour three bun tins and set these aside. You can make the pies in batches of 12 if you just have one tin.

5. Roll out your pastry to about 3 mm in thickness and cut out 30 circles with an 8 cm cutter then cut out 30 small stars.

6. Gently place the circles into the prepared tins. Do not wedge them down as they will gently fall into place by themselves.

7. Place a generous teaspoon of mincemeat in the center of each of the circles. Leave a line of pastry free of mince around the edge as the mince will spread when it is baking, if the tarts are over full, they will stick to the tin.

8. Place a star on top of each pie and bake for about 15 minutes. The pastry should be turning golden and the mince bubbling.

9. Once the pies are cool enough to handle pop them out of the tin with the tip of a butter knife and leave them to cool on a wire rack. You can sprinkle them with a little icing sugar if you wish.