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Easy Mince Pies

 350g plain flour
 100g caster sugar
 225g butter (cold)
 300g mincemeat
 a pinch of salt
 1 egg (for brushing)
 Icing sugar (to sieve over at end)
1

Pre heat the oven to 180c

2

Put the flour in a large mixing bowl

3

Cut the butter into small squares and add to the flour.

4

Rub the flour and butter together using your fingertips and thumbs until there are no obviously large bits of butter left and you have a breadcrumb consistency

5

Add the sugar and salt to the bowl and bring the pastry together into a ball - this will seem like it's never going to work but keep at it and don't be tempted to add any liquid, it doesn't need it

6

Once it's together in a ball, knead for a short time

7

Rub some butter into 12 hole bun tins to help them be non-stick

8

Take ping-pong sized balls of pastry and press them into each hole. You can choose how thick you want to make it - I prefer thinner, my daughter like a thicker pastry. Obviously the thicker you go the less pies you'll get and the cooking time will need to be slightly longer.

9

Spoon mincemeat into the pies

10

Take a smaller quantity of pastry and flatten in your hands to make a lid. You don't need to stick them down as they will seal themselves. As I mentioned before I like to roll out the remaining pastry and cut out star shapes with a pastry cutter and simply lay them on top

11

Beat the egg and brush the top of the pies - this will help them go a lovely golden colour

12

Bake for about 20 minutes. Again, you might want to adjust the cooking time depending on the thickness of the pastry. You may also want to adjust the temperature of the oven depending on how hot yours it - I've worked out that mine is 165c for 17 minutes for example.

13

Once you've taken them out of the over and left to cool for 5-10 minutes you should take the pies out and place them on a wire rack to cool completely

14

Just before you plate them up, dust the pies with icing sugar.

15

Enjoy!