Hello lovely people! Who is excited for Christmas? WE ARE! Panettone, mulled wine, family time, holidays and MINCE PIES! We are sharing our mince pie recipe! Yes that’s right, these are quick and easy to make, but most importantly, they are DELICIOUS. You can also find our recipe here on the Stylist article as part of "The best vegan Christmas dinner recipe ideas”
For the mix:
2 apples
1 orange, zested and juiced
The zest of a lemon
100g cranberries
100g raisins
One jar of black cherries in Kirsch (390g)
100g of pumpkin seeds
50g of hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped
80g of walnuts roasted and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ginger and cardamon powder,
A pinch of salt
A pinch of nutmeg
100g brown sugar
For the pastry:
380g of all purpose flour
180g of margarine - room temperature
20g icing sugar plus a little bit more for dusting
30-50ml of non-dairy milk for brushing
2tbsp of water
How:
Heat your oven at 180/160. In a frying pan toast the pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts and walnuts (without using any oil) over medium heat. Then add a tea spoon of cinnamon and maple syrup, toss the nuts to make sure they are toasted on all sides - it takes me 3 to 5 minutes to do this.
In a deep roasting tray, mix together the following: apples, orange juice and its zest, lemon zest, pumpkin seeds, hazelnut, walnuts, salt, nutmeg, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and cardamon powder. Cover with foil and place in the oven for about 40 minutes. You can switch it off once the sugar has melted and the juice has reduced.
Pastry:
In a large bowl mix the flour, a pinch of salt and the margarine with your fingers - you want to get a nice crumbly texture - then add sugar and the water, and a sprinkle of lemon zest before kneading the dough on a flat surface (dusted with some flour) and patting it down into a disc. Wrap the dough with cling film and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Take the dough and cut off one third of the pastry then roll it out on a clean surface (dusted with flour) - roll out to a thickness of about 0.7mm (we like ours quite thick!). With a cookie cutter (I use a 9cm cutter), cut out 24 shapes and then line the pastry in two 12-hole cupcake tins. Make sure you grease and dust with flour your cupcake tins first. Add about one spoon of the roasted fruit and nut mixture in each circle. Roll out the pastry you have set aside to a tackiness of about 0.5mm then with a star cutter cut 24 stars to place on your pies - push them gently on top of the mixture, then use the milk to brush them gently.
Bake at 160 degrees for 25 minutes. They need to be golden and crispy. Dust with icing sugar before serving (we mix our icing sugar with a pinch of cinnamon too!).
Give it a go, these little pies are yummy! Don't forget to share your recipes with us using @leles_london and #LelesRecipes. And don't forget the most important thing; add a little love to all your recipes - it's the most important ingredient.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
Valentina x