The Saucy Dressings team loves mince pies, especially, though we say it ourselves, our own. These are based on Jocelyn Dimbleby’s version which incorporates orange pastry and cream cheese. There’s a section in the post with the recipe which discusses substituting the cream cheese with cranberries.
That makes the pies much less lush, which is not in the spirit of Christmas, but this version, which has a brighter taste than the classic mince pies, especially with the rich white chocolate and pecan pastry, is, dare we say it, maybe the best of all.
The Chief Taster, who hates white chocolate, loves these.
Christmassy cranberry and mandarin pies encased in pecan and white chocolate pastry
Makes about 15
Ingredients
- 375g/3 cups plain flour
- 150g/¾ cup golden caster sugar
- 4 tbsps ground (or finely chopped) pecans
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt, plus another pinch
- 150g/5 oz diced, cold butter
- 100g/4 oz good quality white chocolate
- 2 eggs
- 450g/1 lb cranberries
- 135g/⅔ cup soft brown sugar
- 2-3 mandarins
- 1½ tbsps. cornflour
Instructions
- First make the pastry by mixing the flour, sugar, pecans, cinnamon and salt together in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Grate in the chocolate. Add the butter. Mix all together until it resembles the texture of breadcrumbs. Beat in one of the eggs, and the white of the other.
- Knead together until smooth. Wrap the ball of dough up in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour.
- Meanwhile make the filling. Put the cranberries and sugar together in a medium saucepan. Grate the mandarin zest into the saucepan (wash and dry them first if you think they may have been sprayed with chemicals). Bring it all to the boil and simmer gently for three or four minutes. Take off the heat and leave to cool.
- Juice the mandarins and mix the juice with the cornflour, ensuring no lumps remain. Add this to the cooled cranberries and stir in well. Add a pinch of salt. Bring back to the simmer for a minute, stirring as you do. Leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 210°C. Grease your pie tray. Roll out the dough. Cut out (using a cookie cutter or a glass) 15 larger circles (to line the basins), and 15 smaller ones (to make the pie ‘hats’). You can cut out small stars, hearts etc in the middle of the ‘hats’ or simply, later, when in situ, cut a cross in them to allow the pastry to escape.
- Line the ‘basins’ with the larger discs, and distribute the filling between all of them. Put on the ‘hats’ and seal the bottoms to the ‘hats’ with moistened fingers. Beat the egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and brush the ‘hats’ with it.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, when the pastry will be golden.
- Eat within four or five days.
