Description
Delicious festive frangipane mince pies featuring a buttery all-purpose pastry filled with traditional mincemeat fruit filling and topped with a rich almond cream (frangipane). Perfect for holiday celebrations, these pies are baked to golden perfection with a crunchy almond topping and a dusting of powdered icing sugar.
Ingredients
Scale
All Butter Pastry
- 220 g plain flour (all-purpose)
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 115 g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 60 ml ice cold water
Fruit Filling
- 350 g mincemeat (fruit filling)
Almond Cream (Frangipane) Topping
- 1 zest of orange
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 115 g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 100 g ground almonds (almond meal)
- 20 g plain flour (all-purpose)
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 30 g flaked almonds
- 1 tablespoon powdered icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Make the Pastry: Rub the cubed cold butter into the flour and salt mixture using your fingers until the butter resembles large peas. Add ice cold water a little at a time, gently mixing with your fingertips until the dough just comes together when pressed.
- Chill the Dough: Form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to chill and rest.
- Prepare the Pastry Cases: Remove dough from fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Use a 9 cm (3.5 inch) cookie cutter to cut out rounds.
- Line Cupcake Tray: Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Lightly flour a cupcake tray and press each dough round into the holes, pushing down to form pastry cases.
- Add Fruit Filling: Spoon about two tablespoons of mincemeat fruit filling into each pastry case, spreading evenly.
- Make the Frangipane: Rub orange zest into granulated sugar to release oils. Cream the zest-infused sugar with softened butter using electric beaters until pale and creamy. Lightly whisk the eggs and add to the mixture, beating well despite slight curdling.
- Add Dry Ingredients: Mix in ground almonds, flour, and salt to the butter mixture and beat until thick, creamy, and fully combined.
- Top the Fruit Filling: Spoon or pipe the almond cream over the mincemeat in each pastry case so they are covered. Sprinkle flaked almonds over the filled pies.
- Bake the Pies: Cover the tray loosely with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until the pastry and almond topping turn golden brown.
- Cool and Serve: Let the pies cool in the tray for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Dust with powdered icing sugar and serve warm or cold, plain or with custard, cream, or ice cream.
Notes
- Use cold butter for the dough to achieve a flaky pastry.
- Do not overwork the dough to prevent it from becoming tough.
- Feel free to customize the mincemeat fruit filling with your own favorite flavors.
- If the frangipane mixture looks curdled after adding eggs, keep beating; it will come together once ground almonds and flour are incorporated.
- Tent the cupcake pan with foil while baking to prevent overbrowning on top.
- Store homemade mince pies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
- Baked pies can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and re-crisp pastry by baking for 10 minutes at 180C (350F).
- Rolling dough that is too cold causes cracking; allow it to rest briefly at room temperature before rolling.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 pie
- Calories: 320 kcal
- Sugar: 18 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 9 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 9 g
- Trans Fat: 0.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 30 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 5 g
- Cholesterol: 70 mg
