A comforting post Xmas mincemeat pie

Hi everyone

Do you find that you still have well intentioned festive things to use up in January?

With a very busy end of year mainly due to visitors & being away for a Baltic break, I did not do all the baking I usually do for Xmas so had some bits still lurking accusingly in the cupboard.

I was invited to share New Years eve at my Godsons,  so I decided to bake something.

I have had festive mincemeat pies (made with a fruit mix for those not familiar with it) but had not made it. However, with a good jar of the prepared mincemeat, a roll of bought shortcrust pastry & some additional glace cherries & soft fruits on hand, I decided to make a tart.

This is how I did it:

Butter & flour a loose bottomed flan / tart dish & preheat the oven to 200C

I mixed the shop bought festive mincemeat, some cut glace cherries & a soft fruit mixture in to a bowl & added a little splash of sherry to it.

I rolled the shortcrust pastry thinner & cut it to fit in to the prepared flan dish.  Prick the base of the pastry with a fork  all over, then rest in the fridge for 30 minutes to reduce shrinkage.  I rolled the remaining pastry between the paper & put it in the fridge to firm up again.

Cut a greaseproof paper circle to fit on the pastry & fill with baking beans to hold the shape.

Bake for 10 minutes then remove the baking beans & paper & bake for a further 5 minutes, take out of the oven & cool.

Fill with your prepared fruit mincemeat mix.  I used the additional pastry offcuts from the fridge to make a thin disk to cover the fruit (mainly so it wouldn't spill over the pastry case).  Using a small star shaped cutter, I cut out some stars, then repositioned the cut out stars on the pastry top.

This disk shaped top was placed on top of the pie, the edges gently firmed down,  a cherry was popped in each star space, then it was baked for 20 minutes till a golden colour.

Icing sugar was sieved over the top then it was ready to go with to our get together where it was well received.

This was the first time I had made it & it is certainly going to be made again ...

Dee ~♥~