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Small Pastries

Christmas Mince Pies

Christmas mince pies: little shortcrust tarts with a rich filling of apple, candied fruit, spices, and brandy.
Recipe Christmas Mince Pies
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Preparation 20 minutes
  • Cooking 20 minutes
  • Servings for 8 people

The warm scent of apples, raisins, and spices will make your home feel even cozier with this Christmas mince pie recipe, one of those easy Christmas shortcrust sweets the holidays just aren’t complete without. These little tarts, like tiny treasure chests of sweetness, are perfect for offering to family and friends and ideal for an elegant tray of filled holiday treats. As you make them, you’ll discover how to make mince pies at home with pastry that’s crisp on the outside and a rich center of dried fruit, raisins, jam, walnuts, hazelnuts, and a spiced touch of cinnamon and nutmeg. The brandy adds a warm aroma that wins you over from the first bite, while every ingredient blends together into true Christmas magic.

According to tradition, this traditional Christmas Eve sweet, the mince pie, is enjoyed on Christmas night, and popular belief has it that serving them brings good luck for the year ahead. A small good-luck ritual for anyone who loves sharing the joy with family or friends: while you work the filling of apples, raisins, and dried fruit, don’t forget to stir it clockwise.

This mince pie recipe with raisins and spices is also a great choice if you want to add a Christmas dessert with raisins and spices with an authentic flavor to your table. Follow our tips for baking mince pies in the oven and impress your guests, perhaps serving these sweets alongside other treats such as Chestnut Tartlets, Pecan Pie, the Traditional Christmas Cake, and some tempting Gingerbread Cupcakes.

Bring this classic to the table and discover how simple and rewarding it is to make mince pies for Christmas lunch or for Christmas Eve. And remember that this mince pie recipe with dried fruit can be enriched to your taste with a flavorful jam as well. Ready to win over Christmas with treats that smell like the holidays?

Ingredients for 8 people

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Method

  1. To make the Christmas Mince Pies, start with the filling. Wash, peel, and core the apple, grate it on the large holes of a grater, and put it in a bowl.
  2. Add the dried blueberries to the bowl with the apple, along with the walnuts and hazelnuts, both roughly broken up beforehand, and stir.
  3. Add the candied fruit, the brown sugar, a sprinkle of nutmeg, and a pinch of cinnamon, and stir. Pour in the honey, the brandy, and the melted butter, and stir again.
  4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for at least one whole night so the mixture becomes nicely flavorful.
  5. Once the filling has rested, move on to the dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, the sugar, and a pinch of salt. Add the cubed butter as well and mix until the mixture looks sandy.
  6. Add the cold water to the stand mixer bowl and knead until the dough is smooth and firm. Shape it into the classic disk, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
  7. Once it has rested, take out the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin to a sheet about half a centimeter (1/4 inch) thick. Using a round cutter slightly larger than the cups of the mince pie pan, cut out circles of dough.
  8. Carefully butter and flour the mince pie pan. Line it with the dough circles, trim off the excess, and fill with the filling.
  9. Cover everything with the remaining dough circles to form a sort of lid, press with your fingers to seal the pastry, and trim off the excess.
  10. Bake in a convection oven preheated to 180 °C (350 °F) for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry has darkened and is fully baked.
  11. Take them out of the oven, let them cool slightly on a wire rack, dust them generously with powdered sugar, and serve the Christmas Mince Pies warm. Finally, remember to download our App with exclusive content and fewer ads!

Variations and Alternatives

If you don’t have Brandy on hand, you can replace it with Rum, Sherry, or Grand Marnier.

Tips

To make the Christmas Mince Pies more quickly, we have told you to let the filling rest overnight, but if you want your Mince Pies to be even closer to the original, we recommend letting the filling rest longer. Some families are said to make it as much as a few weeks ahead.

Storage

Christmas Mince Pies keep for a few days in a cookie tin or an airtight container.

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