Apple mince pies are delicious. I made them for Christmas last year and they were a hit, so good. I think I’m going to make them again for this Christmas. The Port gives the mincemeat a luxurious taste. I like deep mince pies, as it means there is more gorgeous mincemeat in them. Since I made mincepies for the first time I’ve made my own mincemeat. It’s so easy to make that I don’t see the point in buying ready made mincemeat. It also means that I can flavour it as I like.

The pastry has a lovely flavour too as I’ve added apple juice in it, making the pies with hot water crust pastry instead of standard pastry dough. This way I’ve used a bit less butter and I also gave the dough a nice flavour.

Ingredients for 9 Apple mince pies:

Ingredients for pastry:
– 160g plain white flour
– 60g butter
– 75ml apple juice
Ingredients for mincemeat:
– 200g dried fruits (cherries and berries, sultanas)
– 100ml Port
– 25g ground almonds
– 50g white sugar
– 25g Muscovado sugar
– 4 apples
– 2 tsp lemon juice
– cinnamon
– nutmeg
– ginger

Soak the dried fruits in the Port overnight. Make the mincemeat, by chopping the apples. Cook them with white sugar. When the fruits were almost cooked, add the rest of the sugar, the dried fruits, the spices and the grounded almonds.

Boil the apple juice with the butter and pour it over the flour. Mix with a spoon and leave for a bit to cool down. When it’s at a temperature it can be worked with, tip the flour on the worktop and start kneading. Knead for a couple of minutes and leave the dough to rest.

Pre heat the oven at 200C or 180C for convection ovens. At this temperature, it takes around 20 minutes to bake the pies, if you make them as deep as I made them. If you are making them shallower, then adjust the baking time accordingly. You can have a look at the mince pies while they are in the oven to see if they are baked or not, so you don’t burn them.

Dust them with icing sugar and the apple mince pies are ready to be served.