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Sadly my baking skills do not measure up to my vision of light and crumbly pastry, wrapped around a moist, glistening, brandy-soaked pile of sweet and tasty mince meat. As can be seen - more like crumbs, just about held in place by a pile of over-cooked sticky goo that is more crunchy than moist... put it down to 'first time mince-pie maker blues'. These certainly ain't going to impress the family when they descend this Christmas! Bloody pastry; I just can't 'do it', shop brought or not. They don't even photograph very well. Ho hum.
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Hi Andrew - get a really good food processor (like a Magimix - I couldn't live without mine), make sure your butter's cold and that you don't over process or add too much water and give it a good rest in clingfilm in the fridge ...
Pastry is not that scary at all!
Scribbled down by: Alex on December 13, 2006 1:51 PM
Just made a second batch (with ready made pastry) - haven't over cooked them this time. But yes a decent mixer is certainly required!
Scribbled down by: Andrew on December 13, 2006 7:07 PM
I bet they tasted pretty good. My mother used to make these ever year for Christmas, so they bring back a lot of memories. For some unexplainable reason we called them Chess Pies.
Scribbled down by: Kalyn on December 14, 2006 5:40 AM
Your photos are always fab. This is no exception.
Scribbled down by: Scott at Realepicurean on December 14, 2006 12:56 PM
I just made butter tarts and mincemeat tarts, the second one was NOT by choice, bleh! Mincemeat is definitely a holiday tradition I could let disappear and never miss...
Scribbled down by: Brilynn on December 14, 2006 2:58 PM
As the post over on Paper Palate will show the recipe called for the addition of cranberries on the top - they just turned into a chewy, tastless blob. So for the next batch I missed them out and they taste fab!
Sadly by the time they were ready the light is too dim to take another photo.
Cant understand you Brilynn - mincemeat is bleh!? Oh, dear. I love mincepies me ;-)
Scribbled down by: Andrew on December 14, 2006 3:49 PM
Andrew,
The key to success with pastry is a) letting it sit in the fridge but more importantly than that is b) working swiftly, turning the flour a quarter turn every roll and having a well floured surface. I have discovered these simple rules after several pastry disasters. Mind you, sometimes pastry just doesn't want to play ball (unless of course you throw it across the kitchen in a temper because it's too crumbly!).
Homemade Mincemeat is great, I made my own with apples and quince brandy and left out the raisins (which I hate) and it was delicious. I think it must be a British thing...yours still look yum though!
Freya
Scribbled down by: Freya on December 17, 2006 8:43 AM