Stephen Kearney is The Clare Echo’s resident recipe maestro and brings some added flavour to readers with this series called Kearney Cooks. Stephen is a professional baker / pastry chef and more importantly a loveable character who creates easy-to-follow, no fuss recipes which we will publish in video and print.
A few weeks ago I made mincemeat for this column, so I think it’s only fair to give people a pastry recipe so we can make mince pies with our mix.
Myself and my wife make these every year and it has become a family tradition in our house, and these days our kids also help out (by help out I mean cover the kitchen table in flour and mincemeat). It’s a great thing to make and I reckon these are hands down way better than shop bought pies.
For this recipe you will need
- 200g plain flour
- 50g strong flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 130 g cold butter cut into small cubes
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 jar mincemeat
This should make about 18 mincepies
Method:
Step 1 Put your butter and sugar into a bowl and mix them until they are combined and creamy
Step 2 Add your egg and vanilla essence and mix. You may need to scrape down the side of your bowl to make sure all your ingredients are mixing. If your mix looks curdled, dont worry this will sort itself out as you mix the flour
Step 3 Slowly mix the flour until all your ingredients are combined and you can shape your dough into a ball
Step 4 Knead your dough by hand for four minutes on a floured surface. Wrap your dough in clingfilm and put into your fridge for at least an hour
Step 5 Cut your dough into two and roll each ball out into two sheets. Cut out circles of dough that will fit into a cupcake tray from one sheet. Cut out slightly smaller circles from the other sheet to use as lids
Step 6 Lightly grease up a cupcake tray with butter or a spray oil. Shape your larger circles into the cupcake tins. Spoon a nice bit of your mincemeat mix in and cover over with your smaller circle of pastry. Using your thumb and forefinger crimp the edges of your pastry base and pastry lid together and voila, you have a pie
Step 7 Eggwash the pies and feck them into the oven @180 degrees for 25 to thirty minutes or until the pastry is golden brown
Step 8 Leave them cool for a bit and horse into them
If you click into the video that goes with this article there is also a recipe for mincemeat puff pastry turnovers as well. You will also get a better look at how I assemble the pies themselves.
Enjoy with a nice cup of tea or a massive glass of mulled wine.
Steve k
