l love shortbread and wanted something to make some mince pies with and and boy it didn't disappoint! They are so delicious they may be topped the Frangipani Mince Pies this year.
They are lovely melt in the mouth shortbread instead of pastry and filled with a generous amount of homemade mincemeat and topped with a shortbread Christmas tree and a sprinkle of sugar.
They are perfect served on their own or served warm with some Cumberland Rum Butter which has a generous amount of nutmeg in it.
Shortbread has a lot of butter in the recipe as this is what gives it melt in the mouth texture. It is well worth buying a good quality butter for this recipe as it really does make a difference.
To start you cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer, with a hand mixer in a large bowl or even just a wooden spoon and bowl.
When the butter is light and fluffy add the flour, cornflour and salt gradually until it is all combined and forms a soft dough.
On a floured surface roll the dough out slightly thicker than you would normal pastry.
Take a round biscuit cutter and cut out 12 x 8cm circles.
Press them into in a muffin tin.Then cut out 12 festive shapes to go one the top of each pie later.
Place the lined muffin tin and festive shapes in the fridge to firm up for about 2 hours or overnight.
When ready to bake Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade (160 fan) and Gas mark 4.
Put 1 heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each case and top with the festive shapes.
Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with some extra caster sugar.
Leave to cool in the tray then transfer to a baking tray.
Shortbread Mince Pies
Sarah's servings: 12
Sarah's skill: Easy
Baking time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
200g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
200g Plain Flour
85g Cornflour
Pinch of salt
12tsp Mincemeat
Extra caster sugar for decoration.
Method:
In a stand mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the flour, cornflour and salt gradually to the butter mixture until it comes together as a soft dough.
On a floured surface roll the dough out slightly thicker than you would normal pastry.
Take a round biscuit cutter and cut out 12 x 8cm circles and press them into in a muffin tin.
Then cut out 12 festive shapes to go on the top of each pie later.
Place the lined muffin tin and festive shapes in the fridge to firm up for about 2 hours or overnight.
When ready to bake Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade (160 fan) and Gas mark 4.
Put 1 heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each case and top with the festive shapes.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with some extra caster sugar. Leave to cool in the tray then transfer to a baking tray.
Sarah’s extra slice......
You can use any shaped cutter but I used Christmas tree cutter.
Always use a good quality butter when making shortbread it really makes a difference to the taste!
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