Recipe: Mince Pies

If there's one thing I love the most about Christmas it's the food. I love that during the run up to Christmas you can use it for eating half a tub of Celebrations or a six pack of mince pies in one sitting. And that's when I had the idea to make my own mince pies instead of spending a good part of my wages on boxes of them from supermarkets. Now I will admit I did use ready to roll pastry to make them as pastry isn't my strongest point just yet.

Ingredients
- 500g Ready To Roll Shortcrust Pastry
- 250g Mincemeat
- 1 Egg, beaten
- Granulated Sugar for

Method

1. 1- Depending on whether you've brought frozen pastry or not then depends on this step. If you have, give it two to three hours to defrost. You'll be able to tell when it's ready to use. 
2. Once the pastry is defrosted, pre heat the oven to 180C and prepare your tins. I used mini yorkshire pudding foils for my mince pies as they were the closest thing I could get that would mimic the shape of a mince pie. 
3. Once your tin is prepared, it's time to roll out the pastry. For that you'll need a clear, lightly floured surface so the pastry doesn't stick to it. 
4. Place your pastry on the surface and add some flour to your rolling pin. It'll stop the pastry from curling around the rolling pin as you roll it. Once ready, you'll need to roll it out to the thickness of a pound coin, making sure to create enough surface space to cut out twelve bases. 
5. Now your pastry is rolled out, take a cutter; preferrably round and cut out twelve bases. Keep the trimmings as you'll need them for the lids. 
6. Gently place your bases into your prepared tins, I found I needed to stretch the pastry out slightly to make sure there was enough room for the filling. 
7. When your bases are ready, add a teaspoon of mincemeat. You don't want to add too much otherwise it will spill out as it cooks.
8. Then it's time to create your lids. Roll out what's left of your pastry and cut out twelve same size or smaller lids. Place them off to one side for the moment. 
9. Take your beaten egg and lightly brush it around the edges of your filled mince pie. Once you've done that, take a lid and press the two together, making sure to keep the filling in the pie. 
10. Once all your mince pies have lids, brush the lids with what's left of the egg and then sprinkle with sugar to give that extra sweet touch. 
11. It's then into the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. 
12. When they're cooked you can either leave them to cool completely or enjoy them wam, my personal favourite way to enjoy a mince pie.