Hairy Bikers mince pies are orange and cranberry ones, with marmalade and brandy in a same-day mincemeat under lemony sweet shortcrust. From Perfect Pies, the recipe makes 12 Christmas pies at about 195 calories each, in roughly 2¼ hours including cooling and chilling.
Marmalade is the twist, because Si and Dave add it to make the mincemeat “more luscious with heaps of tangy citrus flavours”. And because the fruit is simmered rather than matured, it’s ready on the day after just 6 minutes on the hob.
Hold back the suet until the mincemeat is completely cold, since that’s the order they give. Then I’d guess it’s to stop the suet melting into hot fruit, so I keep the suet in the fridge until that moment.
Hairy Bikers Mince Pies
Description
Fruit, peel and brandy bubble briefly with grated Bramley and marmalade, while the suet waits until everything has cooled. So each lemony pastry case takes a heaped teaspoon, a lid or festive shapes, and 20 minutes in a hot oven.
Ingredients
For the mincemeat
For the sweet shortcrust pastry
To finish
Instructions
- Simmer the fruit: Put the raisins, sultanas, currants, cranberries, mixed peel, sugar, mixed spice, cinnamon, brandy and the orange zest and juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over a low heat, then cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the apple: Meanwhile, peel, quarter and core the Bramley, then grate it coarsely. Stir it into the pan for 1 minute more, then tip everything into a bowl, stir in the marmalade and leave to cool.
- Add the suet: As soon as the mincemeat is cold, stir in the shredded suet and set it aside.
- Make the pastry: While the mincemeat cools, pulse the flour, butter, caster sugar and lemon zest in a food processor until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Then, with the motor running, slowly add the beaten egg and blend until it forms a ball.
- Line the tin: Take off a third of the pastry for the lids, then roll the rest to the thickness of a £1 coin on a floured surface. Cut 10cm rounds and press them well into the base and sides of a 12-hole bun tin, then prick lightly and chill for 30 minutes.
- Fill and top: Spoon a heaped teaspoon of the cold mincemeat into each case, then roll out the reserved pastry and cut out lids or festive shapes. Press the edges firmly to seal, fixing any lids with beaten egg, then make a small hole in each lidded pie, since shapes need none. Then brush the tops with egg.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6, then bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is lightly browned and crisp. Leave the pies to cool for 15 minutes, because the mincemeat will be hot, then dust with sifted icing sugar.
FAQs
Is this the orange pastry recipe on their website?
No, that’s their old-fashioned version on hairybikers.com and BBC Food, with orange juice and zest in the pastry. And Eat Your Books lists it as from their 12 Days of Christmas book, with a lemon boiled for an hour in the mincemeat.
But the two copies disagree, because hairybikers.com lists 120g of butter for 450g of flour while BBC Food’s copy has 240g. Since I can’t check that book, I’ve gone with Perfect Pies, where there’s only one version to follow.
Can I make the mincemeat ahead, or use a jar?
Yes, and they write in Perfect Pies that any unused mincemeat keeps covered in the fridge for up to a week. For something longer lasting, their Brilliant Bakes mincemeat fills about three 450g jars and wants at least 2 weeks, preferably a month, before using.
A jar is fine too, since in Brilliant Bakes they write “Obviously you can buy mincemeat for mince pies”. Though they add straight after that “home-made is a different beast”.
What can I do with the leftover mincemeat?
Plenty, because this batch weighs about 1.3kg and the headnote promises enough for at least 36 pies. And at a heaped teaspoon a pie I make it nearer 80, so there’s a good few more trays in it. Or 100g goes into the panettone twist on their bread and butter pudding from One Pot Wonders.
For a bigger pudding, the mincemeat lattice pie in Perfect Pies uses two 410g jars and serves 8 to 10. And if you love the spiced fruit, two recipes later in Perfect Pies come their currant-filled Eccles cakes, with mixed peel and mixed spice too.
Can I make chocolate mince pies?
Yes, and they suggest it in Perfect Pies, using their chocolate pastry and sometimes a few chunks of white and dark chocolate in the mincemeat. And that chocolate shortcrust sits in the pastry section of the same book.
It takes 250g of plain flour, 175g of cold butter, 2 tbsp each of sifted icing sugar and cocoa, and 1 large egg. So it’s a quarter more flour than this pastry, and it’s written for a 25cm tart tin.
How long do these mince pies keep?
There’s no storage time or freezing advice for the baked pies in Perfect Pies, only the week for leftover mincemeat. But for their frangipane mince pies in Everyday Winners, they write that these keep in an airtight tin for a week and freeze well.
So I’d treat a week in a tin as the limit for these too, which is my call rather than theirs. And for one that’s made well ahead, their suet Christmas pudding in British Classics is simply stored somewhere cool until Christmas Day.
