Is it acceptable to start feeling Christmassy on this blog now? I hope so, because these mince pies are EASILY a go-to recipe and MUST be shared before the 1st December! I found this on the >>Waitrose website<<, as well as Poppy Deyes’s blog (fave).

NOW, considering this is a simple recipe, I kinda did my own thing with quantities of ingredients and wasn’t really watching what I was doing but I’ll show ya the actual measurements which you should aim for (plus i left them in the oven too long oops).

For the pastry you will need:

• 225g plain flour (+ extra for rolling)
• 50g ground almonds
• 125g butter (chilled and diced)
• 50g caster sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod with seeds scraped out
• 1 egg yolk
• as much mincemeat as you want!

And for the crumble on top you need:

• 75g plain flour
• 60g butter
• 6tbsp demerara suagar
• 1 tsp (or more) mixed spice

Ok so I would recommend using a food processor for all of this because otherwise it will take far too long and could go wrong!

Step 1: PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 200 DEGREES!!!!! THEN, put the flour, butter, sugar, almonds and vanilla in the processor and whizz until it looks like crumbs. Then add the yolk and a tbsp of cold water and mix it again until it looks more like a dough. Take it out and knead it until it’s smooth and soft and leave it for a while to chill on the side.

Step 2: For the crumble, you may as well use the same food processor as you did before (saves washing up)! Pop everything in and mix it until it basically looks like a crumble topping! Leave it to the side until you are 100% ready for it to play its part..!

Step 3: Roll the dough onto a floured surface to a thickness of around a £1 coin. Get your cutter (size depends on how big your tin is), and cut as many out as you want, I managed 12 with some left over, so maybe 20 maximum?? Pop them in the tin and press them down so they fit the tin.

Step 4: Pop around 1 tbsp of mincemeat into each pastry case, don’t overfill because they will spill over the top! Then put the crumble mix on top, maybe like a small handful on each tart, and tadaaaa, they are ready to go in the oven for around 15 minutes/ until golden brown!

Leave them in the tin to cool for a bit before taking them out to put on a cooling rack, but once cool, EAT! They are deeeelish so I reckon you could easily eat more than one at once if you were feeling greedy…..

BEFORE YOU GO!!!!!!!!!!! My wonderful friend Bethan has started a blog and has done a couple of posts recently (one from a lovely trip we had together which I should’ve blogged:/) but I really think you should check her out as she may be very relatable to some of you and the content is FANTASTIC! Check her out and follow her >>here<<

Anyway, hope you enjoy this classic but fun mince pie recipe and have a go!

G