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Crumble Mince Pies

DSC_0062 DSC_0078Yes. More crumble. I don’t think I’ve ever made mince pies before. I think I like the idea of them more than I actually like them. I think it’s the pastry you get with shop bought ones, that gets a bit claggy in your mouth, which is what I don’t like. So I took that pastry lid off mine and replaced it with crumble.

DSC_0075 DSC_0077Another Christmas treat which I looooove is, stollen. It’s the chunks of marzipan that make it the thing I look forward to most round Christmas time. Anything with ground almonds in has my vote, therefore I added marzipan to my mince pies. So that’s a crumble on top and marzipan in the middle, what else did I do to these bad boys…

DSC_0067 DSC_0056I scrapped the mincemeat and opted for a slightly lighter fruit filling, that is probably 100 times easier to prepare. All you need to do is soak some dried fruit in orange juice and booooom you’ve got your filling! And finally, to top these little delights off, I added some grated apple. This brings a burst of freshness to an otherwise rather rich little mouthful.

DSC_0079 DSC_0063Oh wait, there is one more little twist! I have used a few different pastry recipes over the least few years, with varying results. The first time I tried making these crumble mince pies I used a sweet shortcrust that had egg in. The second time I used a Sweet Pastry or “Pate Sucree”, courtesy of Paul Hollywood. The dough contains flour, butter, sugar, egg, and the curve ball, ground almonds. I think I might have found a favourite sweet pastry ๐Ÿ™‚

Recipe 

As previously mentioned, the pastry recipe comes from Paul Hollywood’s “How to Bake”. The rest comes from my brain box.
I added the stars on top simply because I had some dough to spare and I didn’t want it to go to waste!
Top tips

  • If you have time, soak the fruit over night, if not I’d say a minimum of 5hrs would be ok. It won’t change the end result drastically, soaking just allows the dried fruits to soften and gives them an orange flavour ๐Ÿ™‚
  • The dough needs to be refrigerated for at least 3hrs, I suggest making it the night before with the fruit filling or putting in the freezer for 45mins
Serves: 24
Prep Time: 30-40mins (plus overnight soaking)
Baking Time: 25-30mins
Skill Level: 3/5
Equipment
Mixing bowl (a few)
Citrus juicer
Rolling pin
Biscuit cutter- 8 cm
12 hole deep bun/mini muffin tin (shallower tin = more pies and will need a smaller biscuit cutter)
Ingredients
Filling
350g mixed dried fruit (I used a ready mix of sultanas, raisins, currents and citrus peel)
juice of oranges* 
zest of orange *
Pastry
165g plain flour
25g ground almonds
120g butter (cubed)
40g caster sugar
egg
Crumble
60g plain flour
60g rolled oats
50g butter (softened)
40g caster sugar
ยผtsp ground nutmeg 
250g white marzipan
apples (grated)
*if only soaking for a few hours, use juice of orange and zest of 2

Method

The day before

  1. In a mixing bowl, mix together dried fruit, orange juice and orange zest. Cover and refrigerate over night.
  2. For the dough; put the butter, flour, ground almonds and sugar in a food processor and whizz on  low-med speed, until mixture resembles fine crumbs. (Can be done by hand; rub butter and flour together)
  3. Add the egg and continue whizzing until mixture comes together to form a dough.
  4. Tip onto surface, shape into disc, cover in cling film and refrigerate overnight or for at least 3hrs.

On the day

  1. Preheat oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 6
  2. Remove dough from fridge.
  3. CRUMBLE: Rub together flour, butter and oats to form med-large bread crumbs. Stir in sugar and nutmeg. Set aside.
  4. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface until about 3mm thick.
  5. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out circles for the bases of your pies and place in muffin/bun tin.
  6. Bring together scraps of dough, re roll and repeat step 5.
  7. Once your bases are cut, following the instructions on the packet, roll out your marzipan.
  8. Put a layer of marzipan at the bottom of each pie – this can be done by cutting out circles or by simply ripping up bits of marzipan to cover each pie base (it will melt when its baked anyway)
  9. Fill each pie with dried fruit filling (drain any excess juice)** top with grated apple, then cover with crumble.
  10. Place pies in oven and bake for 25-30mins or until pastry is golden brown.
  11. Leave pies to cool for 5mins before removing from tin. Best served warm with a cup of something warm ๐Ÿ™‚

**Don’t be afraid to pile the fruit and crumble up, when they cook they will set and “stick” a bit…

 

 WHO HIDES IN THE BAKERY AT CHRISTMAS?
MINCE SPIES!
DSC_0073
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas, without a bit of Mariah….

Well somehow I did it guys. Three recipes in less than a week. Definitely need to keep the momentum up throughout next year and bombard you with new posts! I hope you have a marvellous Christmas and enjoy your cracker jokes, I know I will!

KB x

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