Love them or loathe them Christmas wouldn’t be the same without them. These scrumptious luxury lemon and almond mince pies are a great classic festive treat for any passing guests over the holidays – suitable to prepare in advance and freeze.
Ingredients
- 250g (8oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 60g (2oz) ground almonds
- 75g (2½oz) golden icing sugar
- 175g (6oz) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
- 2 medium egg yolks
- 820g jar luxury mincemeat
- Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
- 2 tbspAmaretto Disaronno (almond liqueur)
- 1 tbsp golden granulated sugar, to dust
- 12-hole muffin tin, lined with paper cases
- 9cm (3½in) and 6cm (2½in) pastry cutter, and mini festive cutters, if you have them
Method
Put the flour into a processor with the ground almonds and icing sugar and pulse for 30 seconds. Add the butter and whizz until the mixture forms crumbs. Add the egg yolks and 1-2 tbsp cold water and process again until the pastry just comes together. Knead the dough lightly on a lightly floured surface. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Mix the mincemeat, lemon zest and liqueur. Set the oven to Gas Mark 5 or 190°C and put a flat baking sheet in the oven to heat up.
Roll out two-thirds of the pastry and stamp out 12 rounds using the larger cutter. Press these into each paper case in the muffin tin.
Spoon 2 dsp of mincemeat into each pastry case. Brush the pastry edges with water.
Roll out the rest of the pastry and stamp out 12 rounds using the smaller cutter. Use mini cutters to stamp out tiny festive shapes in the centre of each round, if you like.
Top each mince pie with the small pastry round, sealing well at the edges. Sprinkle tops with golden granulated sugar. Put the muffin tray on the hot baking sheet and bake the mince pies for 20-25 mins until the pastry is pale golden. Serve warm or cold.
Top tip for making Lemon and almond mince pies
We used paper muffin cases to cook the mince pies, so that the pastry could be nice and thin, and the finished pies are easy to remove from the baking tin.
