Countdown to Christmas - Part 3 - Mince Pies

Well, you may remember a few weeks ago I did Part 1 Christmas Pudding and Part 2 Mincemeat, well this is what naturally happens next. I gave away one of my jars of mincemeat, but that still left me with 2 jars and a bowl.
I make my own mince pies every year, but as I've said I've never made a Christmas pudding before, so I still feel a bit nervous about it. I'm sure it won't be a light and springy, dark, rich sponge like the commercial ones. I've got a picture in my head of some Victorian lump of heavy fruit cake, so fear of the unknown has driven me to feel I need a standby.
Now I'll give you the recipe for this, it's a sweet pastry passed on to me about 15 years ago from my mother in law, I won't fib and tell you this is an easy recipe, although it would make me happy if you thought it was. For me, I persevere because we love it, but the bungalow is usually very hot, especially if the oven is on and this pastry needs a cool environment, it's hard to handle, if you're making a tart you have to do that awful thing they do on Master Chef where they roll it out, fail and then press bits of pastry into the tin, they all do it, amateurs and professionals, so I guess it's OK, but I find it quite uncouth! I think I remember being told this is an old Delia Recipe but not sure.

Sweet Pastry for Mince Pies amongst other things


8oz plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and mixed spice
1 1/2 ox ground almonds
3 oz icing sugar
6oz butter or margarine
1 medium egg yolk
Caster sugar for sprinkling.

Heat the oven to 180C/GM4/350F

Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl. Rub in the butter or margarine. Stir in an egg, knead lightly to form a soft dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for half an hour.
Alternatively,  put all ingredients in a food processor and whizz for a few seconds until you get a soft dough, knead lightly and chill for half an hour.

Roll out to about 2mm thickness and use to make mince pies, a sweet pie, flan or tart. I wouldn't egg wash as mine went very brown, not burnt just brown when I tried, we had to eat them all! Prick a little hole in the top of each to let the steam out. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

I made mince pies....

and a Mince Bakewell

Use the pastry to line a flan tin, lightly prick the bottom surface. Cover with greaseproof, add baking beans and bake blind for about 15 minutes, remove beans and paper and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the pastry looks dry but not too coloured.
Spread the bottom with mincemeat (or the jam or fruit of your choice).

Then in a food mixer, whizz together 4oz each of self raising flour, butter and caster sugar, 2 eggs and a few drops of almond essence. Pour over your filling. You can sprinkle some flaked almonds at this point if you like them, then bake for 30 minutes until the sponge is cooked and is golden and firm to touch - springs back.
Trim the pastry before taking out of the tin, cool and dust with icing sugar to serve.