The best mince pie pastry ever?

helen81_2

Hi,
Me and DS are about to have a crack at making these...hope they turn out good..im usually so rubbish at pastry!!!

Helen x

Louisepp

I'm useless at pastry. My mothers pastry was wonderful. So light and crumbly.

She used to add some fizzy lemonade when mixing. No idea if that was her 'secret'

cqdaniels

Not ever having had any success with pastry before, I must say that these were scrummy!

One problem though, I stored the few that were left over in a tupperware box and the pastry has gone very soft. I was going to make some on Christmas Eve to take to my parents the next day but am now worried they will just go soft. Help!

researcher

Hi,
you could:
Freeze them - this works very well and I have some in my freezer now. If no room then 'refresh' them in the oven - I find a few minutes (5ish) in a medium oven does the job.

Also I store mine in a biscuit tin - rather than tupperware, and I don't find they go soft - maybe that the trick.

pigpen

Mine don't last long enough to store!

I put them on a plate in the microwave and they are usually gone within 24 hours!!

My mother kept a few in an ice cream tub and they saved ok

HappyIdiotTalk

janb5 wrote:

Mincemeat pies

Makes 2 dozen

10 oz plain flour
1 oz ground almonds
6 oz butter
3 oz caster sugar
rind of 1/2 lemon
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons milk

Is that salted or unsalted butter? Got friends round tonight expecting HM mince pies and mulled wine. Never made them before but thought I'd give yours a go. Wish me luck, one of the guests is a chef, and his wife could be a Michelin inspecter!

vivaladiva

Will this thread do for Trex, what we did for Stardrops?:cool:

VickyM_2

HappyIdiotTalk wrote:

Is that salted or unsalted butter? Got friends round tonight expecting HM mince pies and mulled wine. Never made them before but thought I'd give yours a go. Wish me luck, one of the guests is a chef, and his wife could be a Michelin inspecter!

I've used this recipe many times and it is really worth doing. I've always used salted butter - I think when Katie Stewart wrote this recipe (back in the 70s) unsalted butter just didn't feature!

morganlefay

I've gotta say that I've made the Katie Stewart pastry for years and we like it tho it's a right pain to roll out (v sticky) but this year I tried the Trex ones (which I see today in Waitrose is now saying that it's 'Free from hydrogenated fats' which it wasn't last week) and they were a DODDLE to make and wonderfully short and light. IMHO if I were new to mincepies, and cooking for a chef, I'd definitely avoid the Katie Stewart ones and go for the Trex ones which could be rolled out straight away and were really good.

dannahaz

Hi Researcher
Thanks for posting this!

This is the first time I have made pastry since I was at school. It's turned out quite well, but I think I had the mixture a bit too dry. Shame it means I'll just HAVE to make a second batch!

Thanks again

EDITED 6 hours later to add. OMG. I wrote the above just after I turned the pies out of their tins. It's now 6 hours later, the pies are cold and I can't stop eating them.