Billington’s Luxury Star & Christmas Holly Mince Pies

Packed full of fruit and rich dark muscovado flavour, the sprinkling of Demerara gives the perfect sweet crunchy topping to these mince perfect pies.

Makes about 20

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Bake time: 20 – 25 minutes.

You will also need: a 5 cm star-shaped cutter and small holly leaves cutter (or these can be cut out by hand), 2 x 12-cup fairy cake tin

Ingredients

2 x 375g Ready-rolled shortcrust

Pastry flour for dusting

Egg yolk for glazing

Billington’s Unrefined Demerara Sugar for sprinkling

For the mincemeat:

25g Blanched almonds

25g Pecans

Grated zest and juice of an orange

Grated zest of a lemon

50g Ready-to-eat dried figs 25g

Ready-to-eat dried pears

25g Ready-to-eat dried prunes

25g Ready-to-eat dried apricots

25g Dried cranberries

25g Cut mixed peel

1 Small apple, cored, peeled & roughly chopped into small pieces

60g Billington’s Unrefined Molasses 30g Suet ¼tsp

Freshly grated nutmeg

½tsp Cinnamon

1tsp Mixed spice

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200°C or gas mark 6. Begin by making the mincemeat. In a large food processor, add all the dried fruit and nuts until roughly chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients and whizz again until combined. Set aside until needed (this can be made up to 2 weeks ahead stored in an airtight container in the fridge).
• Unroll the pastry and cut out 20 x 7cm circles, re-rolling on a lightly floured surface as necessary. Gently push the pastry rounds into the base of the bun tins. Add a spoonful of the mincemeat to fill each one.
• Roll out the remaining pastry and cut out 10 star shapes and 20 holly leaves. Decorate each pie with either two holly leaves or a star shape. Use the remaining pastry to form small balls (for the berries) for the centre of each holly mince pie. Brush the top of each pastry decoration with the egg yolk and sprinkle with demerara.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is lovely and golden. Either serve warm straight from the oven or allow to completely cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.