Ingredients

375g Plain Flour

260g softened unsalted . If you are vegetarian, use block margarine.

125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 large egg, plus one beaten egg for glazing.

1 large, or two small jars of mincemeat. (This is sweet, not savoury) If you cannot buy it in your country, you can easily make it from online recipes.

Method

• Put flour and softened butter in a bowl and rub together with tips of fingers (keep your hands cool) until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

• Add sugar and stir/mix/pulse once until evenly distributed through the mix.

• Add large beaten egg and stir until the mixture comes together. If it doesn’t, add a few teaspoons (5ml) water, one at a time.

• Take out of the bowl, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

• Butter/grease two bun tins. Turn the oven on to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7.

• When chilled, roll out to 3mm thick on a lightly floured table top or board. If you don’t have a rolling pin, improvise with a water- filled bottle that doesn’t have ridges.

• Using a round, preferably fluted( crinkly) cutter (around 10cm diameter) cut 16 bases and put them in the bun tins.

• Re-Roll pastry that’s left and cut out lids. These can be smaller circles, or, as its Christmas, stars, or strips or even Christmas trees.

• Put a teaspoon of mincemeat in the bases. Make sure the bases are only half full, or just over as the mince can bubble out because of the high sugar content.

• Brush the edges of the pie bases with beaten egg, add the top and brush the tops with beaten egg to make a glaze, and sprinkle the tops with caster sugar. If the tops are sealed, make a small slit in them. You don’t need to do this with stars or trees.

• At this stage, you can freeze the pies in the tins and take out to store when they are frozen. Bake for 15-20 minutes (18-25 if frozen) until golden . Leave in the tins for five minutes before removing them carefully and dusting with a bit of icing sugar if required.